


Fairy Tales are Full of IT

by bluecinderella4



Category: IT (2017), IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King, IT Chapter 2
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-01-27 01:08:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 34,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21383587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluecinderella4/pseuds/bluecinderella4
Summary: It's been 27 years and the Losers Club come back to Derry to finish Pennywise off once and for all. Expecting them, Pennywise gets a little creative and chooses the final battleground via a book of children's fairy tales. Now the Losers have to face the eater of worlds in various fairy tale worlds and the only way home is to defeat the killer clown.
Relationships: Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Patricia Blum Uris/Stanley Uris
Comments: 17
Kudos: 100





	1. Prologue (Once Upon a Time)

**Author's Note:**

> So I was at work when I recalled some tumblr post I saw about someone wanting like a Reddie/Rapunzel kinda fairy tale or something (it was probably 3 am when I saw the post, I really don't remember tbh). Then these little thoughts—we'll call them plot bunnies—came-a-creepin' and, long story short; I have a full-fledged outline combing IT with fairy tales.
> 
> I suppose this would be a different version of 'IT Chapter 2' because what sets this in motion is all the Losers coming back to Derry to destroy Pennywise. Yes, that does include Stan because we deserved more of Adult Stan. Another way the story differs is how they fight off Pennywise. This is a little trickier for me to explain. I'm also sure you're wondering where the whole fairy tale aspect comes in. It's not really gonna be explained in this chapter and will more than likely make sense as we go along.

_September, 1991_

Bill Denbrough steeled himself as he opened the door to his late brother's bedroom. Nearly everything that remained of Georgie's that wasn't furniture was packed in boxes and totes ready to be donated. Seeing as it was the last night in the Denbrough House, Bill had been told to go through everything in that room before it went to Goodwill. He wished he could hold onto it all. There were times he felt he was the only one keeping Georgie's memory alive. His parents' method seemed to be pretending as if Georgie never existed.

But he had.

The house held too many memories. That was the real reason they were moving. His parents could use the "downsizing" excuse all they wanted, but Bill knew better. He slowly made his way into the room and sat in the center. The box closest to him was labeled 'CLOTHES'. No point going through that, Georgie's clothes would never fit. Besides, there were almost a dozen boxes marked 'TOYS' to sort through. After that was done and a few toys selected, Bill moved on to the books. A good chunk of the books—like the clothes and toys—had previously belonged to him and then were passed down to Georgie.

But not this one.

On closer inspection, it seemed like an ordinary book of fairy tales. It wasn't like it was new or in good condition either. However, this was the first book that had completely belonged to Georgie Denbrough (as Georgie had crudely marked on the back of the front cover). Bill had been using his other books to teach Georgie to read, but Georgie wanted something different to read. Being a good brother, Bill decided to spend some of his birthday money to buy Georgie a new book. Declining various pieces of classic children's literature, this fairy tale book had caught Georgie's eye.

"_What's that?" the then four year old questioned his big brother._

"_It's a f-f-f-fairy tale book," even back then Bill had his trademark stutter._

"_What's that?"_

"_Fairy tales?" Georgie bobbed his head in reply. "Just a bunch of kid stories that are supposed to be li-li-like fantasies. Most of them just become _Disney_ cartoons anyway."_

"_Like _Snow White_?"_

"_Sure."_

"_Or _hundred-one damatians_?"_

"_I g-g-g-guess."_

_Georgie picked up the book and looked through the pictures. "No damatians."_

"_Well_ _that one's not really a fairy tale."_

"_What is?"_

_Bill looked at the table of contents. "Looks like _Snow White_ is in here."_

"_What else?"_

_Bill skimmed through the list. If he started listing off most of the stories in the book, he'd get more barrages of "what's thats" from Georgie because most of the stories weren't current movie obsessions like _Snow White _or_ 101 Dalmatians. _"Why don't you b-b-b-buy it and I'll read some to you."_

_Georgie's entire face lit up. "OKAY!" he excitedly snatched the book from Bill ready to take it home._

_Bill couldn't help but chuckle. "Georgie, we still have to p-p-p-pay for it!"_

Back in the present, Bill was fighting back tears as he clutched the book to his chest. He wished he had remembered this book. The majority of Bill's boxes were 'BOOKS' and he barely had room on his shelf for them as it was. There was no way this large collection of children's fantasy stories would fit among his literature.

But if the book was donated, who knows where it would go.

…

The idea came to Bill around three in the morning. As soon as nine o'clock hit, Bill got dressed, stuffed the book into his backpack, left the house without a word to his parents, got on his bike, and rode Silver to the library. This was one of the few chances he could do this. He made his way to the desk. "Is Mike Hanlon here?"

The woman at the counter stood up with a huff and went to fetch the boy in question. Mike had been working at the library that summer on Tuesdays and Thursdays—with one or two Saturdays here and there—and this Thursday was the Mike's last shift. "Hey Bill," Mike had greeted after being led to the front. "You wanted to see me?"

Bill started ushering him away somewhere more private. "I need you to do me a favor."

"Sure, Man."

Bill pulled the book out from his backpack. "I need you to keep this here for me." Mike did a confused double take between Bill and the book. "It's important."

"I can tell, you're not stuttering." He looked through the book. "I just don't get what's so important about-" Bill showed him what was behind the front cover. "This was Georgie's?"

"I don't have any room for it, but I need to keep it close. I have to know where it is. If my parents saw this…" he couldn't finish the thought. "Can you keep this book here for me?"

"Gimme a sec," Mike hurried away to retrieve some items. When he came back, he placed one of the typical library holders with a fresh lending card inside its slot on the back of the book's inside. Then he stamped something onto the bottom of the book. "The only way to keep it here is to make it an official library book. If you try to donate it, there's no telling what will happen." He showed Bill the label on the bottom pages, '_PROPERTY OF THE DERRY LIBRARY'_. "This means other kids may check the book out from time to time."

"But they'll have to bring it back."

Mike nodded. "I'll go to the record keeper and tell them it's from the new shipment."

"Thanks, Mike."

"Go ahead," Mike gestured to the desk, "go check it out. We gotta make it look convincing."

Bill gave his friend a quick hug and returned to the desk. "Just this please." The woman at the desk gave another huff (she really didn't want to be disturbed). Bill quickly reached into his pocket, "Here's my library card."

The woman gave it a brief glance over before pulling out Bill's file, mumbling all the while about needing computers to make her job easier. Without even looking up at him as she jotted down the book's information in his file, she snipped, "This'd go faster if you fill out the card."

"Oh!" Bill took the fresh card from the holder at the book of the book and signed his name in the 'NAME' column. No sooner had he finished did she stamp the due date in the next column.

"You know the routine?"

"Back in two weeks."

"Anything else?"

"No, ma'am."

"Good, get out of here."

…

_September, 2016_

"Hi, Library Guy!" Victoria Fuller gave Mike her custom greeting.

"Hey Miss Vicky," Mike greeted back. "What can I do for you this time?"

She handed him a collection of books. "I gotta bring these back, but I can't reach the return box. I'm too small."

He took the books from her. "Soon you'll be too tall for that return box."

Vicky shrugged. "I dunno. Mom 'membered I had these and said I gotta bring them back before we go the carnival."

"That's right; tonight's the first night of Canal Days."

"Are you going to the carnival, Library Guy?"

"Not tonight."

"We're only going tonight. I'm gonna play all the games and get all the prizes."

Mike couldn't help but chuckle. "I bet you will, but try to save some prizes for the other kids, okay."

"Victoria!" Victoria's Mom entered the library.

"See you next time, Vicky."

Vicky nodded. "Bye, Library Guy!" She gave him a quick wave before running to her mother.

He couldn't help but chuckle again. In all honesty, he'd rather be known in Derry as "Library Guy" than some other choice terms. He even lived in the apartment above the library, so it was also a pretty accurate title too. Absentmindedly, he opened the books to run their barcode through the scanner. It was all routine until he opened the last book. The book was an old one and still retained the flap with the lending card. Mike was about to blow this off until the very first name caught his eye. A name that was pretty much repeated on every other line.

_Bill Denbrough_

"Bill." A strange feeling began bubbling in Mike's stomach. Something didn't feel right. He quickly scanned the barcode and left the wide open book where it was as he closed the library down. He raced upstairs to his apartment and turned on his police scanner. Something bad was going to happen, and he had to be sure.

After all, a feeling like that only comes once every 27 years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No joke, this whole chapter just frickin' came to me. I wanted to just bring all the Losers in and have Pennywise transport them into the book, but it would have been too long for a prologue. I would also need to set up the how the book ended up where it did anyway. I knew it'd be a library book, but the idea that it belonged to Georgie was pretty spur of the moment. This whole chapter was honestly. I was bored, thought I'd try writing this fic, and suddenly couldn't stop. Plus I still hadn't quite sorted how I wanted the Adult Losers to reunite, so this set-up chapter helped. It also seemed kinda weird that Pennywise went after the little girl despite her having no connection to the Losers. With the little boy (Dean), he has a connection via living in Bill's old house and meeting the Adult Losers at the Chinese restaurant. So I thought I'd have Vicky interact with Mike. Again, all last minute, but I think it works.
> 
> Feel free to tell me otherwise though.


	2. Remember to Remember What We Forgot

Each of the Losers had different reactions to Mike Hanlon's phone call. Bill Denbrough—having basically said the wrong thing to his wife on set of their movie—instantly felt a pain in his hand he hadn't felt in years and struggled to find what to do or say after being told to return to Derry. Eddie Kaspbrak—who had also been fighting with his wife (though that was pretty much a common occurrence)—had answered Mike's call in his car, subsequently crashing it. Richie Tozier blew chunks over a balcony shortly before blowing it on stage. Ben Hanscom felt his heart practically beating out of his chest to a point where he had to step outside his beautifully built home for air. An anxious Beverly Marsh used her call for home as the right time to leave her abusive husband.

But Stanley Uris didn't answer his call.

Stan had been working on a bird puzzle when his phone rang. When he saw the area code, everything changed. An old wound inside Stan seemed to open. This call was from Derry. It was the call he had repressed, hoping never to get. So Stan avoided it. And he avoided it after the second attempt…and the third…and the fourth…it had gotten to a point where Stan was ready to just throw the damn phone against the wall.

"Patty," he addressed his wife in the background, "I'm gonna take a bath."

Patty quirked a brow to him. "_Now_?"

"And I just want you to know that I love you."

Patty closed her laptop and went over to him. "What are you not telling me? Who was trying to call you?"

"It's nothing, I-"

"Bull shit, it's nothing," things had been so blissfully content between them that Stan often forgot this side of Patty existed. "Stanley: what's going on?" As if on cue, Stan's phone rang. "Well, if you're not gonna tell me…"

"Patty, don't-"

She answered the call. "Stanley Uris' phone, this is his wife Patricia speaking." Stan's body slumped in defeat. "Mike Hanlon from Derry, you say." Could bitter sarcasm be the appropriate way to describe her tone? "Oh, an emergency back home?"

Stan took the phone from his wife. "Mike, it's Stan." Patty watched her husband with her arms folded in suspicion. "I know why you're calling, but…Mike, I…yeah, but…but can you be sure it's going to work…everyone's coming…Mike I…" Stanley sighed, "…I can't. The last time…we were thirteen years old back then…" Stan exhaled, "…I'll be there tomorrow." He hung up the phone.

"Is everything okay?" despite being pissed at her husband, Patty was still the concerned wife.

"Something's come up and I have to go back to Derry."

"Then I'll go with you."

"What? Patty, no!"

"Stanley, yes! Whatever happened that's got you like this, I'm not going to let you go through it alone."

"I won't be alone. All my old friends will be there."

"You never mention any friends from Derry."

"It was a long time ago; we all went our separate ways and lost touch with one another."

"So it's a reunion?"

"Something happened a long time ago that we promised each other we'd come back for if it ever happened again."

"What happened?"

Stan struggled with how to describe the summer where he and his friends faced off against the killer clown. All in all, it was probably best not to mention it in this instance. "Something we thought wouldn't happen again, but it has."

"That's all the information I'm going to get?"

"You wouldn't believe me if you knew the truth." He sat in the nearest available seat. "The things that happened the summer of '89..." He stared at the ground.

Patty tentatively made her way to his chair. She sat on the armrest and began stroking his back. "If it's that traumatizing for you, I won't pry." He said nothing. "Ever since I've known you, you've never been one to back out on a commitment or promise. Don't do it on this one. Your friends need you." Stan tried not to let on that he was crying. "And I'll be there with you if it gets to be too much." Patty lifted his face and wiped away some tears.

He didn't hide his emotion as he pulled her close in a comforting embrace. "I promised Bill." He let out a shaky breath. "Losers gotta stick together."

…

Because Mike had been the one to make the calls, he had also been the one to start a group text with the other Losers.

_Hey Losers. Meet at library when u get in town 2 discuss dinner plans- MIKE_

Richie scoffed at this. "Asks us back to Derry and he's concerned about where to eat?" He was about to throw the phone down when he noticed the dots appear to indicate someone was responding.

_Sounds good, will eat wherever you guys want- Ben_

"Of course Haystack's focus is the food," he stopped himself from laughing. "Fuck, that shit's too cruel; Haystack was a good kid. It was the cliché 80's kids group; one of us had to be the fat kid." He noticed more dots. "You got your leader, your fat kid, your black kid, the girl, the Jew, the neat freak, and the one with all the great one-liners." This time he let out a small laugh as he jested, "Not that Bill had any great one-liners." His next laugh was pitiful. "Why am I always funnier when no one's around?" He then contemplated something. "And which one of us was supposed to be the nerd?" A notification indicated the incoming text had just came through.

_You guys should know that I'm allergic to soy, anything that has egg in it, gluten, and if I eat a cashew I could realistically die._

A smile crept on Richie's face. "Well, well, if it isn't Eddie Spaghetti." Even without the name at the end, Richie could tell by the message and proper usage of spelling and grammar that this was Eddie Kaspbrak.

_It's Eddie Kaspbrak, by the way_

Now felt like the opportune time for Richie to respond.

_richie here i vote Italian food just 4 eddie spaghetti_

In all honesty, Richie was a bit dismayed when the next response came from Bill.

_Hi Trashmouth. Hi guys, it's Bill_

This was immediately followed with a reply from Eddie.

_Fuck you_

Which that itself was then quickly followed with,

_Sorry Bill, that was meant for Richie_

Strangely content, Richie replied to that.

_i think eds missed me_

Beverly was next to join in.

_I know I missed the Richie/Eddie banters. Hello Losers. Can't wait to see my boys. BEV_

_Can't wait to see you too Bev- Ben_

_Dammit Richie, don't fucking call me Eds_

Richie actually found that sweet. "Sounds like Benny Boy still has a crush on Bevvie. Which is gonna seem obvious to everyone except Bev like it did all those years ago." He considered this. "Might work that into some new material." He tested it. "There's nothing worse than someone so obviously attracted to another person that it's clear to everyone in the world except for the one fucking person you want it to be clear to."

"What was her name?" it was at this moment that Richie remembered he was on a plane and that there was an older lady sitting next to him.

"Sorry, what?"

"The girl you were talking about. Betty?"

"No, Beverly. We sometimes called her Bevvie or Bev."

"This Beverly girl had no idea that all that time you were in love with her?"

"No!" that came out more defensive than it should have. "No, my friend _Ben_ was in love with her. It was kinda obvious, but they never really…did they…" Richie tried to remember. "…I honestly can't remember if they ever got together or not. Hell, I don't even remember how I remembered that Ben was in love her." He then got serious. "I don't remember how I remember Ben." He emitted some sort of laugh. "These guys were my friends and I only just remembered them. Ben, Beverly, Eddie…" for some reason he stopped after Eddie's name before continuing with, "…Bill, Mike, and," he looked at his phone, "I can't believe I just forgot Stanley. Stanley," he repeated the name. "Stan. Stan the Man. Stan Urine. I think a few times I even called him 'Staniel'."

"I couldn't help but be curious," the lady veered topics. "I'm a hopeless romantic and I want everyone to find their true love. I thought maybe that Beverly girl could be yours."

"Nope. Never once thought of her in that way. She was just a friend. She was also pretty good with a slingshot and the best to bum a cigarette off of." Wanting to end any conversations, he reached for some headphones. "So what's our in-flight movie gonna be today?"

…

"He's not responding," Beverly's urge to reach for a cigarette was getting stronger, but the airplane bathroom probably wasn't the best place for one. "Everyone else has responded back, but Stan." She thought back to what she had seen all those years ago in the Deadlights. Beverly had seen all of them die. Stan's death was in a bathtub. His wrists were slit and he his eyes open. The word 'IT' was written in his blood. Stan looked fairly young so if it didn't happen, it was going to happen soon. "Fuck it," she reached into her pocket for a cigarette. Of course, that's when someone else knocked on the door. "Be out in a sec." Bev flushed it down the toilet and went back to her seat.

"_Do you guys think we'll still be friends?"_

"Stan?" Beverly definitely heard Stan's voice. Only it was the voice of a younger Stan.

"_Yeah Stan, come on," _now she was hearing her own voice in her head. Or at least her voice when she was younger. _"You don't have to be so-"_

"Sad," the Beverlys finished simultaneously. Why was Older Beverly remembering this now? And why was it only what they were saying? Was that even what she and Stan said? Hell, did Stan even say it? Maybe it was one of the other guys and she just thought it was Stan because he seemed to be the only voice she could remember. "Excuse me," Bev beckoned the flight attendant over, "is there a smoking section somewhere on this plane?"


	3. The Reunion of the Loser's Club

Bill was the first to arrive. Getting out of his car, he surveyed the surroundings of his former childhood home. He couldn't quite explain the sensation he was experiencing. This place was his home, he spent his formative years here, and even though it was all familiar, he couldn't remember it.

"Been a long time, hasn't it?" someone's voice brought Bill back to reality.

And even though it had been a long time, Bill had remembered who was addressing him. "Mike?" Despite the recognition, Bill had still phrased his name as a question.

With the widest of smiles on his face, Mike hurried over to his writer friend and hugged him. "I knew you'd come!"

"An oath is an oath. Losers…Losers gotta stick together," where did this response come from?

"Losers; you remember that."

Did he though? "It's good to see you again, Mike." The two became distracted as another car pulled into the parking lot. It had been a while, but they immediately recognized Eddie exit the vehicle and make his way over to them.

"Holy shit," Eddie didn't seem to know what to say either, but it was enough to ease a bit of tension. He pointed first to Mike. "Okay, you're Mike. And you're…Bill."

Bill nodded before hugging him. "It's been a long time, Eddie."

"Too long," he pulled away to give Mike a hug. "Hey, Mikey. Wait, can I call you Mikey or-"

"You guys, yes," Mike approved. "I've actually kinda missed it. I even miss some of the other names Richie called us."

"Richie's not here is he? God, he had some of the most annoying nicknames for me."

"Like Eddie Spaghetti?"

Bill couldn't help but chuckle, earning a glare from Eddie response. "Sorry," Bill apologized. "It's just when Mike said that, it brought back some memories of the things you and Richie used to fight about."

"Yeah, well," Eddie was fidgeting, "I intend to keep my distance from Richie Tozier and his 'Your Mom' jokes. So, did anyone else from the old gang show up?"

"Just you two so far," Mike answered. "Come on inside, make yourselves comfortable." He stepped aside so that Eddie could enter, but then stopped Bill. "I found something you may want to see." Mike led Bill toward the library desk—ignoring Eddie mumbling about "dusty, old books"—and presented him with a book of children's fairy tales.

Bill accepted it with reluctance. "Um…thanks."

"You don't remember this?"

"Should I?"

"Look behind the cover."

Bill did. His breath hitched upon what he discovered. "Georgie."

"I kept it for you, Bill. Remember all those years ago, you asked me to."

"I…" Bill was at a lost for words, "…sorry, Mike, I really don't."

If Mike was dismayed, he didn't really show it. "No, it's okay. I'm not surprised that you don't remember. The further you go, the more you forget."

"Say, Mr. Librarian," Eddie interrupted the conversation, "got any books by this guy?" he put his arm around Bill's shoulder. "He's a famous writer now."

"Oh, we've got quite the collection of works by Mr. William Denbrough. We talkin' books, or movies?"

"Guys, come on," Bill was visibly embarrassed as he set the book back onto the desk.

"It's not often guys like us can say we're friends with a famous author with movies based on their work."

"Even though one of our friends also happens to be a famous comedian?"

Eddie did a so-so gesture. "I wouldn't exactly use the word 'comedian'. His jokes aren't _that_ funny. Besides, Bill's books are actually good."

"You really think so? You're not just saying that?"

"What, you think I'm lying?"

"I mean the endings don't suck or anything?"

Eddie hesitated. "_Suck_ is a strong word."

…

Beverly stalled when she approached the doors. It had been so long and there was something about this that didn't quite feel right. Was it too late to turn back now? What was there to go back to anyway?

"Is there a password or something?" the unfamiliar voice should have made her jump, but she didn't.

Unfamiliar voice guy was kinda hot to be honest. "I'm sorry."

He shrugged at her with a smile. "New kid?"

It dawned on her. "Ben?" His smile grew bigger as he confirmed her suspicions. "Oh my God." she went in for a hug. Her smile was equally big; there was just something…_good_ about being in his arms. Something that felt right.

Ben was also holding on as if he didn't want to let her go. "It's been so long." The memory of their first meeting replayed in his head.

_Beverly had finished drawing hearts under her signature in his yearbook page. "Stay cool, Ben from Soc class."_

"_You too, Beverly," he had replied back._

"_Hang tough, New Kid on the Block."_

"Wow," Ben and Bev pulled apart to see the new person who had intruded on their reunion, "you two look amazing. What the fuck happened to me?" Ben couldn't help but laugh, while Bev smiled in recognition. "Richie," the confirmation wasn't necessary; it was as if they knew.

"Yeah," Ben hugged him. "It's Ben," he felt the need to clarify on the off chance that Richie hadn't remembered.

Beverly was next for a hug. "Hey," damn Richie was tall. "Long time, no see."

"Yeah, it's uh…" Richie cleared his throat, "it's been a while." He was directing his attention between the two of them, but it was on Ben when he said, "Almost didn't recognize you guys."

"You look good."

"Bull shit."

"No, you grew into your looks."

"That's what they all say to the ugly friend."

"Richie," Beverly playfully swatted at him.

He gestured between the three of them. "Three out of seven isn't bad."

"The others are probably inside," Ben surmised.

"Then let's make an entrance." Richie practically threw the library doors open expecting them to make a loud reverb and attract attention (they did). "This meeting of The Losers Club has officially begun."

"Look at these guys," Eddie had pointed them out to Mike and Bill. There was a little silence as Richie gestured an indication that the handsome man next to Beverly was their previously fatter friend.

Mike was the one to break the silence. "It's good to see you guys again." Everyone went in for reunion embraces, even though Eddie tried to avoid Richie.

"Aw c'mon, Eds," Richie pulled him in anyway and mussed up his hair.

"Don't fucking call me that," Eddie griped. "I hate when you call me that."

"Nice to see you too, Eddie Spaghetti."

"Come on," Mike led them toward one of the study tables. "Why don't we catch up for a bit before we decide what to eat?"

"Shouldn't we wait for Stan," Ben pointed out.

"Yeah," Richie seemed to agree. "Where is Stanley Urine?"

"That's not his name," Eddie paused. "Was it?"

"_Uris_," Bill corrected. "Stanley Uris."

"I coulda swore his last name was something more Jewish," Eddie's innocent remark elicited a small chuckle from Richie. "It wasn't supposed to be mean-spirited, asshole."

Richie patted Eddie's back. "There's the angry little Eddie Spaghetti we know and love."

"Fuck you, Dude."

"Aww," he pinched Eddie's cheek. "Cute, cute, cute."

An upset looking Beverly turned toward Mike. "Stan is coming right? He didn't join in the group text. Has anyone gotten a hold of him?"

"I talked to him," Mike informed them. "I was the one who called him." He sat down. "But there was something…something _off _about what happened. I kept calling him, but my calls went unanswered until his wife picked up the phone."

"Stan got married?" Richie questioned.

Bill gestured to his wedding ring. "He's not the only one."

"Yeah, we all know the big shot writer is married to the glamorous movie star."

"I'm married," Eddie spoke up.

"What, to like a woman?"

"What about you, Trashmouth?" Bill spoke up before Eddie could verbalize his contempt at Richie. "Are you married?"

"There's _no way_ Richie's married," Beverly was so certain of that.

"No, I got married," Richie stated that with all seriousness.

"Richie, I don't believe that."

"When?" it sounded like Eddie didn't believe it either.

Richie diverted his attention to Eddie. "Did you not hear this?"

"No."

"You didn't know I got married?"

"No."

"Yeah, me and your mom are very, very happy," the other Losers (sans Eddie) started to laugh.

"Fuck you," Eddie didn't know why he was surprised. He had expected a "Your Mom" joke from Richie and there it was.

Richie continued on with this bit as the mood in the room became more lighthearted. Soon they were onto new topics of conversation and catching up as if they hadn't seen each other in twenty-seven days instead of years. They were so busy reminiscing about the past—which they seemed to remember out of nowhere—and taking in each other's company that none of them had seen that someone had made their way into the library. Beverly was eventually the first to notice the last member enter the scene. Upon sight, she immediately ran over to him and embraced him in the biggest hug. So much so that Stan almost fell over and had to collect his bearings.

"I think she missed Stan-crow most of all," Richie quipped.

Mike was the next to get up and hug Stan. "It's good to see you, Man."

"You too," Stan pulled away. "I almost didn't come."

"We're glad you did."

"Something just…I don't know why, but…"

"You _had_ to come?"

Stanley sighed. "Yeah."

"I mean it's weird right," Ben started, "now that we're all here everything just comes back faster, and faster. How each of us just _had_ to come here…" he trailed off unsure of what to say.

"You know: when Mike called me, I threw up," Richie felt the need to interject. "Isn't that weird? Like I got nervous, I got like sick, and I threw up." He tried to diffuse the tense attention drawn to him with another chuckle. "I feel fine now. I feel very relieved to be here with you guys."

"When Mike called me, I crashed my car," Eddie admitted.

Ben held his fist in front of his heart as if he was about to make a beating motion. "I mean my heart was literally like…_pounding_ right out of my chest."

"I thought it was only me," Bev said this almost as a whisper.

"I know," Bill agreed. "It was pure f-f-f-f-"

"Fear," Mike finished for him. "What you felt, what you _all_ felt, was fear."

"Why did we all f-f-f-feel like that, Mike?" Mike looked to the ground. "You remember something we don't, don't you Mike?"

"Something happens to you when you leave this town. The farther away, the hazier it all gets. Me, I never left. So yeah, I remember. I remember all of it."

"Pennywise," both Bev and Stan spoke the name in sync.

"Oh, the fucking clown," Eddie's breath started coming in faster as he began searching his pockets for his inhaler.

"Mike," Bill was trying not to sound accusing, "you said you wanted our help with something. What was that?"

Mike immediately stood from his seat and went over to his desk. When he started looking through the desk, the others made their way over to join him. "There's an echo here in Derry; it bounces back every twenty-seven years. We thought we stopped It back then, we thought it was done," he moved a book aside so that he could present some papers. "Adrian Mellon slaughtered, Lisa Albrecht missing, there have already been those, and there will be more unless we stop it!"

Eddie, Richie, Stan, and Bill were trying to vocalize their objections. Leave it to Ben to be a sort of peacemaker. "Just let him explain." He gestured for Mike to continue.

"That echo…we might have changed it, just like I_t_ changed us. But we didn't stop It. We made an oath," all eyes were on him. "That's why I brought you back. That's why you're here. To finish It, for good."

The awkward silence encompassed the room until Richie broke it with, "Well, that shit got dark fast."

"I know how to stop it," Mike lifted a backpack he had under the desk. Inside the backpack was some weirdly decorated lampshade (or lampshade looking thing). "We need to find some kind of token or memento from our youth that holds meaning to us and burn it in this ritual."

"What ritual?" Stan questioned. "What are you talking about?"

Richie, meanwhile, had his attention on something else. "And why the fuck is that book glowing?" They all stared in confused fear. "Mike, what the hell?"

"I'm not doing this!" Mike defended.

A sinister laugh echoed throughout the library. One that very clearly did not belong to any of the Losers. Once the room started to quake, they all backed away trying to steady themselves.

A panicked Eddie held his hands to his temple while trembling. "I don't wanna be here! I wanna go home!" The book flew open wildly by itself. "Holy shit!"

"This isn't real!" Mike was trying to convince himself as well as the others. "None of this is real!"

"I'm not real enough for you?" Standing behind them in all his terrifying glory, was Pennywise the Dancing Clown. "Hello Losers," was he drooling? "Did you miss me? 'Cause I missed you."

Richie tightly shut his eyes while repeating, "This isn't happening! This isn't real! This isn't real, it isn't happening, it isn't real!" But the sudden jolt of being levitated had him convinced otherwise. "GUYS, I DON'T LIKE THIS!"

"You'll float, Richie," suddenly, the other Losers found themselves dangling midair. "YOU'LL ALL FLOAT!" Pennywise giggled with demented joy at their screams. "Look at you: all grown up and home again." His evil eyes glanced down at the open children's book. "But not for long," with a wave of his hand, everything disappeared into a bright light.

When the light was gone, the book slammed itself shut. The silence disturbed by the maniacal cackling of one very scary clown.


	4. The Boy in the Yellow Raincoat (Into the Woods 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what I have planned from this point on are the Losers in various fairy tales. The dramatic irony is that they don't know that the only way to move on is to find their token that Mike had very briefly mentioned in the last chapter.
> 
> Yes, I said various fairy tales. I haven't regulated the tokens to just one fairy tale. In fact: I've basically got 3 stages I've titled
> 
> Into the Woods
> 
> Above and Below
> 
> Once Upon a Nightmare
> 
> Into the Woods will feature more story options that involve fairy tales set in a wood/forest. Above and Below feature stories that take place either above or below, and I think I'll keep you guessing for Once Upon a Nightmare—although the title may give a clue just like the preceding titles.

"OOF!" Bill landed rather roughly on his left side with his eyes closed. When he rolled onto his back and opened his eyes, nothing was familiar. Last he remembered, he was inside the Derry Public Library and now, he was outside in some kind of forest. He quickly stood up in a panic. "HEY!" this was mostly a cry out to verify that he wasn't alone. "GUYS?" no response. He put his hands on his head as he let out a series of panicked breaths. Not knowing what to do, he started to repeat a phrase from his youth that helped him with his stuttering. "He th-th-thrusts his f-f-f-fists against the p-p-posts and s-s-still insists he sees the g-g-g-ghosts," the repetition wasn't helping much with the stutter. Doing his best to remain calm, he started heading down a path hoping to find something besides trees. It didn't take him long to come across a small stream. Hoping this was all some sort of dream, Bill headed to the stream, cupped his hands in the water, and splashed the water on his face. He did this a couple more times until a passing paper boat caught his eye. "W-w-what the?" He followed the boat down the stream as fast as he could. Waiting nearby, was some sort of figure in a bright yellow raincoat. The figure reached for the boat and then stood erect. It suddenly dawned on Bill who this figure was. "Georgie," he raced over to the figure. Georgie turned around to the sound of his name. "Is it r-r-really you?"

Georgie held the boat closer to him and backed away. "I don't know you, Mister."

"Georgie, it's me. It's Bill." When Bill took one step closer, Georgie took two steps back. "Georgie, please-" moving toward the boy did nothing for Bill, because Georgie turned around and ran as fast as he could. "Georgie!" Bill gave chase, but little Georgie was faster. Naturally, Bill had to stop to catch his breath. "Damn, kids are quick." Pacing himself, Bill quick-walked in the direction his brother had went. Nothing was going to stop him from confronting his brother.

Although the sudden wolf howl did create a momentary pause.

Now the logical choice for someone who was alone and scared would be to hurry away in the _opposite_ direction of where a scary thing or noise was coming from. However, if someone were in unfamiliar territory, coming face to face with your dead little brother, and being tormented by a demonic clown from youth, then it would make sense not to think logically. Curiosity can also lead one down a dangerous path, and Bill was curious where he was, what was going to happen, and what was his dead brother doing here seemingly alive. Regardless, Bill had distinctly heard a wolf howl coming from the direction his brother had fled. Dead or alive, Georgie was the only person here and would probably know how to get back.

So logically, Bill ran in the direction of the wolf howl.

This also proved to be a blessing in disguise because mid running, he quite literally bumped into another actual person. "Stan?" He helped Stan to his feet. "Stan, it's me, it's Bill." Bill stated who he was unsure of whether or not Stan remembered who he was.

"Bill?" Stan gripped onto Bill hoping he was real. "Bill, what's going on? Where are we?"

"I d-d-d-don't know!"

"I remember being in the library, that fucking clown was back, we were floating, and then I landed in some woods."

"Did y-y-you see anyone else?"

"Just you. Why? Did you see anyone else?"

"You wouldn't b-b-b-believe me if I told you."

Stan furrowed his brow to Bill. "I wouldn't believe you? After all the shit that happened with the killer clown, I wouldn't believe you?"

"I was l-l-looking around and I saw G-G-Georgie."

"Your brother?"

"He was playing by a stream in his r-r-raincoat, but I scared him off. I was ch-ch-chasing him when I h-h-heard-" as if on cue, there was another wolf howl.

"That?" Bill nodded. "I heard it too. I was running away from it when I ran into you." Stan considered something. "Only you're running _towards_ it?"

"What if the wolf goes after Georgie? H-h-he's the only other person I've seen and m-m-might be able to get us out of wherever w-w-we are."

Stan sighed. "This isn't the first time we've run toward danger."

"Let's hope it's the l-l-l-last." Stan stepped aside and gestured for Bill to lead the way. "He went th-th-th-this way."

"Hey Bill," Stan had spoken up after a period of walking in silence, "do you think we're strong enough to stop him?"

"W-w-w-what?"

"Last time we were stronger, we remembered everything, and we stopped Pennywise. But we were stronger when we were together; our bond was tighter. One weak leak in our chain and it made it easier for It to…to get us." Stan put his hand to his face as the memory of his attack came back. "We were in Neibolt and I got separated." He was trying desperately to keep it together, but wasn't doing that good of a job. "You left me alone and I said you guys weren't my friends."

"Stan," Bill moved closer to him, but an upset Stan backed away.

"I'm not strong enough, Bill!"

"D-d-don't say-"

"God dammit, we both know it's true. We'll wind up alone, and that's when It's going to attack and we're going to die!"

"You don't kn-kn-know if-"

"Look around you! We have no idea where we are and we're going after someone we know is dead! How can we defeat some demonic clown just the two of us? We're not all together, that makes us weaker! It's bad enough you're one of the strongest and you're stuck with the weakest one. Face facts, Bill: we are going to die!"

"We are not going to die!" Whenever Bill had to take charge or be brave, the stutter disappeared. "No, I don't know where the others are, but they're probably in the same situation we are. If we can find out what's happened to us, we can find out what's happened to the others and come together to stop Pennywise." He took a second to let out a deep breath. "You're not weak, Stan; It just wants you to think you are. And I can't promise I won't leave you alone, but I'll try not to."

"You're scared too," Stan barely spoke above a whisper.

"Let's just go f-f-f-find Georgie."

"Bill," Stan pulled Bill in for a hug (much to Bill's surprise). "Earlier, I didn't get a chance to hug you and in case something happens…" he didn't finish that thought. "…well, you are my friend and I did miss you."

"I m-m-m-missed you too, Stan."

"Come on: let's go find your brother." The two of them continued to make their way down the path unsure of where to go. True, they did try to engage in small talk, but that was only to try to convince themselves they weren't afraid and that they were doing the right thing going after Georgie. "Why does it feel like we've been going around in circles?" Bill eyed him. "Have you not been noticing the trees?"

"Have you?"

"You know how I tend to notice when things are obviously out of place." Stan pointed to a nearby tree with a carving etched into it. "Like that mark carved into that tree," he pointed to another tree, "or how that one has a crooked branch."

"Doesn't look crooked to me."

"Well it is, and this isn't the first time I've seen 'crooked branch tree'." Bill gave an exhausted sigh and leaned against the nearest tree as Stan paced. "Don't worry, we'll find a way out."

"I know we will."

"I was talking to myself."

Bill rolled his eyes. As he did, something in the sky caught his attention. "Hey Stan, do you see that?"

Stan glanced upward. "What, the cloud that looks like a turtle?"

"No, next to it."

"Looks like smoke." Both Bill and Stan looked at each other in understanding and ran toward the source of the smoke.

The source of the smoke just happened to be a cottage in a clearing, a beautiful garden of flowers landscaped around the small, wooden house. Bill took the lead and knocked on the door but got no answer. "Someone has to be home."

"You think they heard us?" Stan knocked louder. Again, no answer. Bill started for the doorknob. "Hey, whoa, isn't that breaking and entering?"

"Only if we get caught," Bill opened the door and entered the home, Stan following behind.

"I doubt that's gonna happen; looks like no one's here."

"At least not downstairs," as Bill headed for the stairs, he took notice of a piece of apparel on the floor.

A yellow raincoat.

"He's here," Bill headed up the stairs.

"Bill, no!" Stan tried to stop him. "What if this is a trap?"

"This is Georgie's raincoat! He wore this the last time I saw him and has a bad habit of just leaving his clothes lying around. He has to be upstairs."

"But you don't know that."

"He probably tired himself out from running and fell asleep. He's seven years old, kids often get tired when they run out of energy." Bill made his way up the stairs and into the bedroom. Sure enough, someone was lying in the bed bundled in all the blankets. "Georgie?" Older Bill slowly made his way to the bed. "It's Bill. I know it doesn't sound like me, but it is. I'm all grown up and I need your help."

"Bill," Stan seemed hesitant and remained close to the door, "Bill I think there's something in the closet." Bill then took notice of the slightly open closet.

"Stan, go downstairs and try to find some kind of…some kind of weapon to-"

"Alone? No, thank you."

"Then get in here and check the closet."

"How about you check the closet and I'll wake your brother?"

"If he's not going to recognize me, what makes you think he'll recognize you?"

"Honestly: from what I remember about Younger You, Older You looks nothing like I imagined."

"Um…thanks?"

"Georgie knew me; he might recognize me."

"And what am I s-s-supposed to protect myself with if there is something in the c-c-closet?"

"Your lame endings?"

"Low blow, Stanley."

"Sorry."

Bill contemplated their options. "Go together?" A reluctant Stan nodded and tentatively headed toward the closet. He stood by one side of the closet door as Bill stood on the other. "On three?" Stan gulped when he nodded. "One…t-t-two…three," together, they pulled the closet doors open all the way to find it empty. Bill pulled the light switch chain to illuminate the space. "There's nothing in here."

"Are you as relieved as I am?"

"Cautiously relieved." They closed the doors simultaneously. "Let's wake up Georgie. You pull the covers, I'll shake him." Stan nodded as Bill knelt beside his brother. "Georgie," Bill gently began to shake his brother.

Stan's screaming startled Bill to attention. He took notice of what made Stan back away in fear. Bill let out a short scream as he stumbled to his feet. When Stan had pulled back the covers, the sight they came across was Georgie Denbrough lying on his stomach, soaked in blood, covered in bite marks and scratches, and missing most of an arm.

Then came a thud from the closet. If there wasn't anything in the closet before, there was now. And it was coming out of the darkness toward the two men.

"B-B-Bill," now Stan was the one stuttering as a wolf-like creature with Pennywise's features wearing clothes similar to what a younger Bill would have worn (that shredded plaid shirt on that creature looked oddly familiar), "what is that thing?" The Penny-Wolf stood erect and detached its very sharp claws.

Both Bill and Stan screamed in terror and ran downstairs as Penny-Wolf chased after its prey. When they started to run away from each other, Penny-Wolf chased after Bill. Soon, the wolf had Bill cornered near the fireplace. Bill reached for a piece of firewood to use it as a weapon, but Penny-Wolf had bitten right through it. "Shit," Bill searched for a fire poker, but the cottage didn't seem to have one. What kind of home with a fireplace didn't have a fire poker?

Penny-Wolf drooled in anticipation as it readied to pounce at Bill. Bill closed his eyes and braced himself, but all he heard was a pained growl. When he opened his eyes, he saw Stan with a bloody kitchen knife behind a now wounded Penny-Wolf. With a sort of battle cry, Stan plunged the knife into the wolf repeatedly. When the creature was on the ground, Stan sliced open its stomach and various contents came pouring out. Somehow, they had suppressed their nausea as they watched the creature shrivel up and crawl away in defeat.

Breathing heavily, Stan dropped the knife to the floor. "I can't believe I fucking did that."

"You did good, Stan," Bill had his hand over his chest as he tried to slow his breathing, "but It got away; I doubt It's dead."

"Please let me have this one, Bill."

"Was that monster wearing one of my old shirts?"

"You noticed that too?"

Bill reached for a tattered piece of shirt Penny-Wolf had been wearing. "This was the shirt I wore into the Neibolt House." Bill made a deduction, "I think Pennywise lured Georgie here as younger me."

"But why was it part wolf?"

"It can change its form. I guess Pennywise turned into a wolf monster so that it could attack and eat Georgie."

Stanley looked at the contents from Penny-Wolf's stomach. "He must not have been too hungry; besides a chunk of arm, there's not much of Georgie in here."

"Real comforting, Stanley."

"I just thought maybe if I say something Richie might say, it'd diffuse the tension."

"Thanks for trying, Stan, really."

"Just leave the jokes for Richie then?" This got Bill to smile. "Would it be a bad time to quip about the monster not chewing its food?"

"What?"

"There are various pieces of flesh and clothes, but this paper boat is still intact."

"Paper boat?" Bill went over to the mess of contents and noticed the _S.S. Georgie_ in one piece and free from blood and…whatever was inside It's stomach. "How is this even possible?" he picked up the boat for closer inspection.

"Ew, Dude, you better wash your hands."

"That's the w-w-weird thing; it's clean."

"How can it be clean when it-" A sudden wind started to blow inside the cottage. "What's going on?"

"I don't know!"

The wind blew everything away except for Bill, Stan, and the _S.S. Georgie_ in Bill's hand. They stood in nothing but darkness until a bright light appeared in the distance. "Should we follow the light?"

"What other ch-ch-choice do we have?"

"What do you think's behind that door?"

"No idea," they walked toward the door. "Y-y-you got the knife?" Stan shook his head. "Damn."

"Hopefully your paper boat will come in handy."

"Leave the one-liners to Richie." Bill opened the door and stood aside. "I went first l-l-last time; it's your turn."

Stan took a deep breath, stood erect, and slowly went through the door to the unknown with Bill and his paper boat following close behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I first heard James McAvoy was casted as Bill, I was surprised. He didn't really look like an older Jaeden Martell. Don't get me wrong, James did a fantastic job, but I doubted Georgie would recognize older Bill because James doesn't quite look like Younger Bill. Plus in the "you lied and I died scene", Georgie was addressing Younger Bill who was behind Older Bill. This referential thing was something that kind of came to me last minute, but I couldn't pass it up.
> 
> I really hope I kept Stanley in character. We got no time with him as an adult and I tried to use traits I remembered from Younger Stan in here. I wanted Stan to be the one to stop Pennywise in here as a sort of mini payback for what happened in the sewer and to show that when faced with danger, he's not as weak as we perceive him to be.
> 
> Plus, I have something bad planned for Stan later, so I thought I'd give him this.
> 
> I thought I'd let you guys play literary detectives and guess which fairy tales are being featured. I don't know if this one will be easy; the only real clue you have is that this story is set in the woods. Can you work with that? The fairy tale will be revealed in the next chapter.


	5. The Old Woman in the Gingerbread House (Into the Woods 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to 'A Blue Clue!' for guessing the correct fairy tale for the last chapter. It was "Little Red Riding Hood" and their comment basically explains all the ways it is so that I don't have to.
> 
> But which fairy tale is featured next?
> 
> Sorry, not sorry in advanced for all the swearing by the way.

Richie dropped onto his stomach. "OW!" he rolled onto his back. "Fuck me" He quickly checked his glasses for damage. He sat up with a grunt. "What the..." he put his glasses back on. Okay, so his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. He genuinely had no idea where he was. "Where the fuck-"

Someone else's screams distracted Richie. This was then followed by a loud thud and a pained, "What the fuck?"

"Eddie?" Richie followed the sound of Eddie's voice. "Eddie!"

Eddie looked up at him. "Richie?"

Richie went over to help Eddie to his feet. "You okay, Eds?"

"I think so—don't call me Eds." Eddie dusted himself off. "Where are we?"

"I was hoping one of you guys could tell me."

"You guys?" Eddie looked around. "The others are here?"

"Where else would they be?"

"I don't even know where the fuck we are."

"You're really making up for all the times you couldn't swear when you were younger, aren't you Eds?"

"Fuck you, and don't call me Eds."

They started to explore their surroundings. "Are we even in Maine anymore?"

"Dunno. What do you remember?"

"I remember the fucking clown showing up and making me float."

"That was in the library."

"No shit. I'm in the library, I'm floating, there's a bright light, and then I practically belly flop in the live action _Bambi _without the computerized animals."

"The same thing with me. The floating, the bright lights, and landing in some unknown woods."

"Wasn't anyone else with you?"

"No." A realization made Eddie huff. "So wherever I am, I'm stuck with you."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"Well…"

"C'mon Eds," Richie playfully shoved him, "you know you love me."

"I love certain aspects about you. You yourself…meh." Richie put his hands over his heart and pretended Eddie's remark stung. This got them to share a laugh before the tone became a tad more serious. "I loved how good a friend you were and came through for us when we really needed it."

"Yeah?"

"I also remember you making it worse when I broke my arm."

"Bet you're glad I avoided the medical profession?"

"I'm not surprised you became a comedian. You always tried to make us laugh."

"It was a defense mechanism," Richie had stated this in serious sincerity.

The way he said that had Eddie wondering if Richie meant defense for all the Losers, or just for Richie. He found it best not to pry. For some ungodly reason, Eddie preferred the lighthearted, fun Richie Tozier to the serious one. "No comeback about my mom?"

"Saving it for the perfect moment, Eds."

"A: there is no 'perfect moment' for those. And B: don't call me Eds."

"I don't wanna call you Eddie Spaghetti."

"That's a first."

"I'm just really fucking hungry and I'm trying to keep my mind off food."

"Did you eat anything before you came here?"

"Plane peanuts. I was saving up for a big dinner."

"Gonna order all you can eat and then leave us with the bill?"

"See, you get it."

"Yeah, I was usually the one who did."

"Hey," Richie sniffed the air, "you smell that?"

"What?"

Another sniff. "It smells like Christmas."

"Excuse you?"

"Like one of those smells you only smell at Christmastime."

"Rich-"

"Seriously! Stop and smell."

"Fine," Eddie relented. "But there's not going to be any…" he trailed off, "…I smell it too."

"Right!"

"It smells like gingerbread." He inhaled the scent again. "It's coming from this direction."

"Good enough."

"Richie, wait," Eddie grabbed Richie's sleeve to stop him, "something about this screams 'trap'."

"That or 'free cookies'!"

"Richie."

Richie sighed. "I don't want to give you the benefit of being right; but what other options do we have?" Eddie didn't say anything. "Eddie?"

"This is going to pain me to say this," Eddie let out a deep breath, "Richie: I think you're…right," he said the last word very quietly.

"I'm sorry, I'm what?"

"You're right," Eddie spoke through gritted teeth.

"Now was that so hard to say?"

Eddie pushed Richie forward. "You're going first, Asshole."

"More cookies for me," Richie led the way through the forest until they came across a clearing. "Well…" they took in the sight before them, "…that's something you don't see every day."

"That is just diabetes waiting to happen," unlike Richie, Eddie wasn't all that excited seeing a house made of gingerbread. "The dentist bills alone-Rich!" Richie was already picking pieces off the house. "Richard Wentworth Tozier, you are going to be the death of me." Eddie went over to his friend. "The fuck do you think you're doing?"

"I'm hungry," was what Richie appeared to say with his mouth full of gingerbread.

"Charming." Richie stuck out his tongue, proudly displaying the chewed-up gingerbread. "Real mature, Dickwad. Did it occur to you that someone might live in this house and it's not purely decoration?"

"It's good decoration," Richie commented as he pulled a piece of candy off the house and ate it.

"Why does this seem familiar?"

"What?" Richie asked with his mouth full of candy.

"A house in a forest made of gingerbread. Doesn't it sound like-"

"My, my," the men jumped at the appearance of an old lady in the window, "someone certainly was hungry."

"Sorry," Richie apologized before crudely putting the uneaten candy back on the house. "I'll pay for any damages."

"No, he won't," Eddie mumbled to himself.

The old lady waved her hand. "Candy was meant to be eaten. Don't trouble yourself."

"Thank you, Ma'am."

"So polite," the woman smiled at Eddie. "You may help yourself too, young man."

Eddie faked a polite laugh. "No thank you, Ma'am-"

"Please, call me Mrs. Kersh."

"-Mrs. Kersh. My friend and I-"

"Perhaps you'd like a proper dinner before indulging in some sweets? I just made a pot of turtle soup. You two are more than welcome to join me."

"Really, Mrs. Kersh-"

"I insist," she stepped away from the window and not even ten seconds later, the front door was open. "I rarely ever get any company, and you two must be famished. I've even made some tea."

Eddie exchanged glances with Richie. The only response from Richie was a shrug (followed by him shoving more candy into his mouth). "I suppose we could stay for a few minutes before we try to find our friends."

"Please, come in," the kindly old woman ushered for them to come inside. Once they were inside, the men didn't notice her lock the door behind her. "Sit down," cautiously, they did. Mrs. Kersh then went to prepare the tea. "You say you're looking for your friends?"

This piqued Eddie's interest. "Yes, have you seen them?"

"What happened to them?"

Eddie and Richie exchanged another glance. "We're not really sure; we can't find them."

"We were hoping maybe they came this way," Richie suggested.

"It does get so lonely out here," Mrs. Kersh was still diverting the question as she set a cup of tea in front of Richie. Richie's eyes widened in confused disgust as he looked down at the tea. Of course, Eddie took notice of this. When Mrs. Kersh set a cup in front of Eddie, Eddie looked down and tried to suppress the bile rising in his throat, though he did emit some noise of uncomfortableness. The "tea" looked like dirty, grey water and flies were floating lifeless in the cup. "I do apologize for the heat. It gets so very hot here this time of year. Where you feel like you can just about die." When a visibly freaked Eddie and Richie looked up at her, she was standing there with a wide, eerie looking smile on her face. She remained like this for a moment before making conversation—the two guys grateful she didn't turn into some hideous monster in that brief pause. "So you're not sure what happened to your friends?"

There was an awkward silence before Richie answered back. "Uh…no. Eddie and I came here, just us, and we have no idea where our friends are."

"Would they happen to be the young, redheaded lady and the four other gentleman?"

"Yeah, actually, they are!"

"Oh, they were so nice. They did say something about looking for their other friends."

"So they left?" Eddie questioned.

"Oh no, they're still here. I invited them for lunch; they were so polite. They seemed so tired, the poor dears, that I offered them rest for a little while. I didn't have very much room upstairs, but the basement has some blankets, and pillows, and old furniture that hardly goes to use. If you'd like, you can join them in the basement."

"Alive, I hope," Richie had said that so only Eddie could hear.

A 'DING' startled the men. "The cookies I started are ready now!" She slowly shuffled to her massively large stove in the corner of the kitchen. "I do love these stoves. There's so much more room in the oven." She took the cookies out of the very huge oven without even putting oven mitts on, the same smile plastered on her face as she stood there holding the burning tray.

"Thank you for the tea, Mrs. Kersh," Eddie was trying not to sound like he knew something was so obviously wrong. "If you don't mind: my friend and I will go get our other friends and be on our way. Come on Richie, let's go get our friends."

"Sure, Eddie," Richie wasn't sounding as convincing. His tone clearly expressed that he knew something was up. Mrs. Kersh stood there with the smile and stared. "Oh-kay then: down to the dark, scary basement we go. Come on, Eddie," Richie took Eddie by the arm and led him toward the basement. "Is she still smiling."

Eddie quickly looked. "Yeah."

"Fucking creepy."

"Right?" When Mrs. Kersh did nothing and just stood there, Richie and Eddie nervously waved.

"Think she killed the others?" Richie tried not to move his mouth when he asked.

"Oh, she definitely did," Eddie tried to do the same.

Richie faked a laugh. "Some sweet little old lady is going to kill us."

"We are going to die here."

They eventually stopped waving and headed down the stairs into the dark basement. "Okay, so maybe this wasn't the best idea, coming here."

"Ya think?"

"I was hungry and I smelled food! So no, I wasn't thinking!" He looked behind him to make sure she wasn't following. "Old lady gives me the fucking creeps. There's no way to ruin homemade cookies, but she sure as shit found one."

"Beep, beep, Richie."

"What?"

Even Eddie was surprised by that. "I…I don't know where that came from."

"So why'd you say it?"

"I thought it would get you to stop talking."

"Ever considered the words 'shut up'?"

"Shut up, Richie."

"Now how about the word 'please'?"

"Fuck you." A sudden thud made the guys recoil in fear. Frantically, an already tense Eddie started searching for his inhaler. "Where's my inhaler. I can't fucking find my-" scratching noises seemed to get closer as Eddie's breaths came in quicker and heavier.

"Eddie, calm down."

"Fuck you, calm down!"

"Don't worry yourself into an asthma attack! If we need to, we can fight off some scary monster like we did before. I can't save you if-" they were cut off by some sort of huff. A shaking Richie reached into his pocket for his phone, turned the flashlight on, and waved it around. "I don't see any of the guys down here." He lowered the phone. "Oh shit…"

"What?" Eddie took out his phone as a flashlight. Standing in the lights, was a Pomeranian puppy. "That's what all those noises were?"

"There's no way I'm falling for this shit; that thing's a fucking monster." He looked at the dog. "I know your moves, you little bitch." The Pomeranian tilted its head at him.

"What if It just wants us to think this is a monster? Maybe this is just a harmless dog. I mean he is pretty cute"

"Then why would the old lady lure us into the basement only to lure us back upstairs?" The dog barked before hurrying past Richie and Eddie and up the stairs. "Huh, maybe it is a regular dog."

"You sure you didn't see anything else?"

Richie waved his light around. "No, do you?"

Eddie followed suit. "No."

"Then why-" the dog barked to get their attention. "I think the little fucker's trying to lure us to our deaths."

"So what, now we go back upstairs?"

"We go upstairs and get the fuck outta Dodge."

"Good plan," they hurried upstairs and to the front door.

"Dammit! The old broad locked us in here."

"What?" Eddie looked at the complex locking mechanism on the door. "Shit! How the hell are we supposed to get out of here?"

A thump had them simultaneously turn toward the dark living room area. "Probably in a body bag"

The sound of footsteps grew closer before coming to a stop. The next sound was the sound of some rather heavy breathing. "Please let that be the dog."

"Leaving so soon, Boys?" It was not the dog. They could see the outline of the Mrs. Kersh in the shadows. "You're not even going to help yourself to some cookies?" her voice was also getting deeper, and raspier. Almost inhuman. "We haven't even had dinner yet." A pause. As if on horror movie cue, a monstrous Mrs. Kersh popped out of the shadows. She was naked and bony, her hair flying all over the place, and it looked like there were two more mouths on her neck.

Naturally, Richie and Eddie were terrified and scrambled to run away. It wasn't like they had much room to work with. As they tried to hide, Eddie took notice of the open stove in the kitchen. This could come to their advantage if Eddie planned it right. "Richie, go stand over by the stove."

"Excuse you?"

"I have an idea, but I need to use you as bait."

"EXCUSE YOU?"

"Trust me!"

Richie's eyes fearfully darted around to search for an alternative way. Alas, there didn't seem to be one. "Okay," he nodded, "but you better know what you're doing." Richie ran out from his hiding spot, alerting the monster of his presence. Richie's screaming after being sighted by the monster made it easier for It to follow him toward the stove. Each of the monster's mouths licked their lips as they inched close to Richie. "Sorry, but I don't think I'm on the menu tonight." As the monster was about to leap at Richie, Eddie came from behind and pushed it toward the open stove. That's when Eddie's intentions dawned on Richie.

"Help me get it into the oven!"

Together, Richie and Eddie managed to shove the monster into the oven, close the oven lid, and turn the knob as high as it could go. The resulting screams were a mix of both Mrs. Kersh and the inhuman rasp. Nevertheless, they had defeated It.

At least for now.

"I think…" Richie needed a moment to catch his breath, "…I think I lost my appetite." When the two of them took a second to breathe, that's when the Pomeranian came trotting back in with something in its mouth. "You're right Eds," Richie pet the pooch, "it is pretty cute."

"Is that," Eddie reached for what the puppy was holding onto, "Richie, this is my old inhaler."

"Why does that dog have your inhaler?" The dog then ran away again. "Hey! Now why did-"

"Richie, look," Eddie brought Richie's attention towards the front door. Formerly locked, now it was open and emanating a bright light.

"Huh…neat."

"That's gotta be our way out of here."

The interior of the gingerbread house, along with its contents, began melting away so that only the door was left. "Well, that was weird."

"Good weird or bad weird?"

"Dunno; I still can't get the image of creepy monster lady's boobs just dangling there."

"Yeah, that was fucking gross."

"So fucking gross!"

"All that talk about old lady boobs and no comeback about my mom?"

"Too easy; not the perfect moment anyway."

"What, are you waiting for an audience?"

"Do you think maybe they were here? Bev or the guys?"

"I don't know. I wish they were; be nice to have someone else for you to annoy."

"Me annoying?" Richie faked gasped. "Perish the thought."

"I think maybe I'll teach them that 'Beep, beep Richie' thing. Might come in handy sometime."

"It would be nice to have someone else here to not be such a persnickety stick in the mud who's always complaining."

"You know you love me," Eddie mocked before he went through the door.

Richie lingered behind after watching Eddie leave. "Yeah." He couldn't help but grin. "yeah, I do."

"You comin' or what, Trashmouth?"

"Right behind ya, Eds."

"How many times do I have to tell you: do _not_ call me Eds."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fellow Reddie fans: you're welcome
> 
> And no: I don't know if Richie has a full name. I just know his dad's name is Wentworth, so I went with that as a middle name.


	6. The Man in the High Tower (Into the Woods 3)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos to 'wolfwithpanthereyes' for guessing correctly. The last story was "Hansel & Gretel". 
> 
> If these fairy tales aren’t seeming that obvious to you guys, don’t worry, I’ll practically give you the answer in this one.

Ben let out a groan as he sat upright on the floor. He kept his eyes closed as he rubbed a sensitive spot on his forehead—the ground he had landed on was slightly hard and his face had made contact with it. This clearly was a floor, he was inside, but he sure as Hell wasn’t in the Derry Library because that floor was carpeted. “Everyone okay?” Still, his top priority was making sure everybody else was unharmed. However, he got no response. He finally opened his eyes. “Guys?” Ben stood up in a panic. "GUYS!" He wasn’t exactly in a room, per se. It was a very large living area with a small kitchen and no bathroom. It wasn’t the lack of bathroom wasn’t an issue for him (yet)…

…it was the lack of a door that posed a problem.

Admittedly, there were times when Ben Hanscom would feel claustrophobic—he usually made up for that by adding more spaces in his architectural projects—but there had always been an exit path. He frantically began to search for an alternate exit. The only potential he could find was a window. Ben all too eagerly ran to the window ready to leave…

…only to stop himself when he looked down.

Ben’s view could be considered picturesque. Wherever he was, he was in the woods. Beyond all the green of nature, a beautiful, blue ocean was waiting. And while that all seemed nice, directly below wherever he was, was a miniature forest of thrones. It seemed to act as a barrier to prevent him from heading toward the ocean.

Of course, the fact that he was fifty feet above it all was also an obstacle.

Well, maybe not fifty feet—that was most likely an exaggeration—but it certainly was a long way down and he couldn't see the ground. The window did have a sill, thankfully. Ben held onto the sill as he looked along the outside of the tower (he was _definitely_ in some sort of tower) to search for something, ANYTHING, to aid him down. No ladder, no stairs, a very short rope, no rocks to climb, but the tower was covered in vines. Ominous looking, potentially poisonous vines with thorns protruding from them, but there were vines.

Panting, Ben started searching the inside for anything in the walls or floor that could break loose or that he could squeeze through. All the while, he was calling out the names of his friends hoping that maybe one of them was somewhere nearby. Even though he was most likely alone, now wasn’t exactly the best time to lose his cool or break down. Not when he and his friends were being targeted by a demonic, killer clown from their childhood.

He was momentarily distracted when he heard what sounded like a pained groan from behind him. This was followed up by, “What in the---”

“Beverly?” Ben hurried to the other side where Beverly was lying on her back among various, random items, trinkets, knick-knacks, thingamabobs, or what-have-yous that were now there as a result of Ben’s search. Her eyes were closed, and her hand was on her head; but she seemed alright nonetheless. “Bev, are you okay?”

“I think so,” Ben helped her to her feet. “I was coming to when something hard hit me in the head. Like it was thrown at me.”

Ben picked up the source (a small, ceramic turtle) and gave a small laugh. “Yeah, sorry, that was probably my fault,” he tossed the turtle aside. “I was digging through everything trying to find a way out and---”

“A way out? What are you talking about? We’re in the---” Bev was now getting a good look at her surroundings, “---okay, maybe we’re not in the library.” She glanced out the window. “This is a small setback.”

“I’ve been trying to find a way out before I found you.”

“Any luck?” He shook his head. “Fuck,” she backed away from the window. “Too bad my hair isn’t long enough.” He gave her a funny look. “_Rapunzel_?”

“Oh,” he let out a small laugh, “I didn’t really think about that.”

“You think the others are down there somewhere?”

“Didn’t really think about that either,” he looked out the window. “They could be lost out there somewhere.”

Beverly joined him at the window. “Alone.”

“That’s probably the scariest part for them,” Bev turned to face him. “Being alone.”

“At least_ we’re_ not alone,” she placed a hand in his. “We’ve got each other.” Did something seem off about Beverly’s touch, or was it just him? “The view’s not so bad either,” that seemed more directed at him.

Ben couldn’t help but chuckle. “Okay, yeah, I’ve changed a lot since we last saw each other.”

“Have I changed?”

“You’ve gotten taller and older. For the most part, you still look the same,” he pointed to his own hair to indicate hers, “Your hair’s still the same red it was all those years ago.”

“Is it still winter embers?” was she referring to what he hoped she was referring to? Ben found himself moving closer to her as if in a trance.

“You remember?”

“How could I forget.”

When Ben got close enough to fill a gap between them, he leaned down to her level and whispered in her here, “I’m not going to fall for it.”

She nervously laughed. “What do you---”

“You’re not my Beverly.”

Bev backed away in anger. “_Your_ Beverly? Since when do I belong to anybody?”

“You’re not the Beverly I know. The one who would reach for a cigarette at the first sign of pressure or stress. The Beverly who keeps focused on what needs to be done and not on romance until all of us were out of danger. She cares about all of us Losers equally and would put up a fight to find them and be with them. We’ve forgotten things since we’ve been away from Derry; but even when Beverly thought Bill wrote her the poem, she still knew it was _January_ embers.”

Beverly’s face burst into flames, eliciting a scream from Ben. When the flames died down, Pennywise’s face had replaced Beverly’s. “Shut up and kiss me, fat boy,” Ben recoiled in horror, subsequently falling to the ground. He quickly sat back up and tried to crawl away backwards as Pennywise tauntingly made his way toward Ben. “Nobody wants to kiss the fat boy.”

“Get out of here; leave me alone!”

“_Alone_? You’ve always been alone.”

“No! I have real friends! Bill, Eddie, Mike, Stanley, Richie, Beverly; they’re my real friends.” This whole incident seemed like déjà vu to Ben. Had he said all this before? “I’m grown up; I’m not the same kid I was back then.”

“All that success, all those sit-ups, but deep down you’re still just a little fat, fat, fatty loser!” Pennywise taunted him with a maniacal laugh. “Always knew you would die alone!” With a wave of his hand, everything in the tower moved closer and closer to Ben. “The fat kid with no friends dies alone.”

“NO!” Pennywise had disappeared as everything started to crumble on top of Ben. So this was how it was going to end? At least he had the option of being crushed, suffocated, or to have something penetrate his body hard enough to cause a fatality. He wasn’t going to give up without a fight though. Ben did everything he could to get away, but it was like everything was cursed to trap him.

Feeling hopeless, Ben decided now was the best time to have the breakdown. He was fully ready to accept his doomed fate. That’s when something to do with Beverly—_his_ Beverly—caught his attention. Despite everything determined to defeat him, Ben had made his way over to what he thought had been tucked safely in his wallet for the past twenty-seven years. Sure enough, the yearbook page from his youth that only Beverly Marsh had signed was there. He struggled to reach for the memento and somehow managed to grasp it in his hand before becoming completely submerged in objects.

That’s when everything around him seemed to disappear. Quite literally. One second everything was toppling onto him, the next second they vanished into thin air. The only object remaining was the yearbook page in his hands. A grateful Ben quickly stood up and held the page close to his heart trying to fight back the tears. He may have been spared one of his deadly options, he may have been able to save the item most precious to him, but he was completely and utterly alone.

“Some happy ending for this Rapunzel,” he verbalized his thoughts because that was really all he could do. All of a sudden, a bright light beckoned him. Since there was nothing else to do, he slowly made his way toward it. The light led him to a window similar to the one in the tower. Only when Ben looked out of it, he could see the ground below him. At least he thought it was ground; the view was nothing but white. Still, Ben let out a relieved breath before climbing through it, more than ready to see what was waiting on the other side.


	7. The Losers and the Shack (Into the Woods Part 4)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last part of “Into the Woods”! It’s a little longer, but I needed to get out some exposition. I also wanted to make up for the delay in posting thanks to my job. I hope this next part satisfies.
> 
> And yes, the previous fairy tale was "Rapunzel".

(The Real) Beverly was trying desperately not to panic. She had no idea where she was, she had no idea where any of the other six men she was with were, and she had no idea what the Hell happened to her cigarettes because she needed one _now_, dammit.

She took some deep breaths and tried to focus on what needed to be done. Where was she? Well she clearly wasn’t in the Derry Public Library. She was outside in some kind of forest, okay fine. Where were the guys? Just because they weren’t in her field of vision didn’t mean they weren’t nearby. So she needed to do some exploring, okay fine. As for the issue with the cigarettes---

“Beverly?”

Bev turned around to determine who just called out to her. “Mike,” she made her way over to him. “Are you okay? What’s going on?”

“I wish I knew,” he looked around. “I don’t need any of my books to tell me we’re not in Derry. I don’t recognize this from any books about forests or parks either. I just remember we were floating and…well, here we are now. I suppose I’m okay _physically_. Yourself?”

Bev nodded. “I could really use a cigarette though.”

Mike chuckled. “I’m not surprised; those were always your go-tos whenever you were under stress or looking for an escape.”

“Have you seen any of the other guys?”

“Not yet. They can’t be too far though. We should probably reconvene with them before figuring out where we are.” Beverly agreed with another nod. “I don’t suggest us splitting up to cover more ground.”

“Not unless we knew what we’re dealing with. Whatever’s happening has to be Pennywise’s doing. There’s no telling what It has in store for us.”

“Beverly…” Mike trailed off unsure of how to phrase what he had to say, “…what if we have to face whatever It has planned for us in order to find everyone else?”

“We’ve done it before, haven’t we?”

“Only when it was all of us. And in order for the Ritual to work we---” he stopped he began a frantic search.

“Mike?”

“Do you have anything with you that you had in the library?”

“Nothing but the clothes on my back.” Mike huffed, trying desperately to keep cool. “What did you mean by ‘ritual’? Was it the one you were trying to tell us about earlier?”

“The Ritual of Chud. Even if we could perform it, I need that artifact I had.”

“But what exactly is the Ritual of Chud?”

“The only way to defeat It. We have to take special tokens, mementos of significance and burn them.”

“Burn them?”

“Burn them and throw them into the artifact.” The only response was a blank stare. “I know it seems crazy, but it’s the only way. I poured through so many books and I went around and asked everyone I could. The ones who would actually talk to me were very helpful. The artifact was a…I don’t really want to use the word ‘_gift_’ from the Shokopiwah Tribe, but they’re letting me use it to defeat It once and for all. I know you probably think I’m crazy—maybe I am—but I know this will work.”

“Maybe we have to find it to get out of here.”

“Find the artifact?”

“Pennywise did something to us, It brought us here somehow. What if we have to find something to get us out of here?”

“And that something could be the artifact?”

“It was right next with us before we came wherever we are. If we find it, we find a way back.” Mike was on the verge of a smile. “I’m not saying I completely _believe _you, but it’s all we’ve got to go on and it makes the most sense.”

There was the smile. “That’s good enough for me. Come on,” he started walking away, “let’s go exploring.”

“So these Native Americans, what else did they tell you?”

“They did keep repeating this one phrase: _all living things must abide by the law of the shape they inhabit_.” Beverly considered this. “It’s like that ‘_with great power comes great responsibility_’ line that's repeated, but will also come into play later. They also showed me through the artifact how It first came here. I saw a cavern and three floating lights.”

“The Deadlights.”

There was a tensed pause. “I didn’t want to bring it up, but you looked into those lights all those years ago.”

She frantically began searching her person. “I need a fucking cigarette.”

“You said we were older; our parents’ ages.”

“I’ve been having these nightmares recently. They felt familiar to me, but I didn’t know why until I came back here. I got caught in It’s Deadlights. I saw all of us die. Those were my nightmares.”

“Beverly---”

“But I saw Stan at the library! He was supposed to be dead! When I saw him…”

“How did Stan die?”

“He was in a bathtub. His wrists had been slit,” Mike winced at that. “He looked the way he did when I saw him at the library.”

“Stan killed himself?” Mike was in disbelief. “Why? He’s got a good life in Atlanta, he’s an accountant, he’s married---”

“There was writing,” Bev interrupted. “On the wall in Stan’s bathroom. In his own blood.”

“What did he write?”

“_It_.”

“_It_?”

“Just that one word.” She started to shake.

Mike put a comforting arm around her. “When we stop It, everything that you saw will only seem like a nightmare. None of it will have happened and we’ll all go home.”

“Home?”

“I don’t necessarily mean just Derry. I mean maybe we’ll be taken back to Derry and from there just get on with our lives.”

“And just forget again?” Mike couldn’t answer. “What if I don’t want to forget? What if I don’t want to go back?”

“I can’t guarantee whether or not we forget or we remember. I know I won’t forget because I'll still be in Derry."

"You will?"

"I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

“Don’t say that.”

“I stayed, Bev. I stayed and I remembered.”

“When we get back, you'll remember, we'll all remember. And then you can go wherever you want. Travel the world.”

“I have always wanted to go to Florida.”

“Ew, why?”

Mike gave a hearty laugh. “Seemed like a better option than New Jersey.” That got Bev to laugh. “I’ll let you help me plan my getaway when we get out of here.”

“First, we need to get out here,” this time, Bev took the lead. “Try looking for any distinctions on the trees or something.”

“I’m not seeing anything.”

Beverly hated to admit it, but neither was she. Still determined, the two of them continued their quest for answers until they simultaneously came across a wooden shack. “You think whatever we need is in there?”

“It’s possible.” They stared at the shack. “You think It’s in there?”

“It’s possible.” Bev sighed. “What other choice do we have?”

“None,” Mike headed toward the dilapidated building with Bev following close behind. Mike hesitantly reached for the knob, but didn’t turn.

“Mike?”

“Bev, you gotta promise that no matter what happens in there, we have each other’s backs.” She nodded. “Promise me.”

“I promise.”

“I promise too.” He slowly turned the knob and opened the door. Turns out the inside of the shack was just as much a mess as the outside. Whoever lived there clearly didn’t know how to clean up after themselves. Still, it was clear someone was living there because whatever was on the table was still hot. Mike was the first to take notice of the table. “Check this out.”

Bev picked up a small bowl that looked like a turtle shell. “What, the bowls that look like animals?” she pointed to the other bowl, “I think that one’s supposed to be a giraffe.”

He made a face at the slop inside the bowl. What even was that? “I meant that whatever’s in this bowl is still hot. Whoever lives here---”

“---is still in here.” They jumped when they heard a noise from the behind them. Picking up the bowl she had dropped (which hadn’t broken thankfully), Beverly set it down and began to search for the search of the the noise. “I don’t see anything.”

Mike gave the place another look-over. “Well,” he turned toward the only other room, “there’s only one other place it could have come from.”

Bev was now standing beside a smaller room in the corner. “Two if you count the bathroom. Speaking of...”

“I’ll wait out here.”

“Thanks,” Bev closed the bathroom door behind her.

Unsure of what to do, Mike tried to avoid looking in the direction of the bedroom. It was when he looked back at the table that he noticed the steam coming from the giraffe bowl. The steam was gradually getting faster and faster as if it was turning into a cyclone. Until it stopped…

…and then burst into flames.

A panicked Mike started to back away to avoid the flames, but the flames only grew bigger and began to spread. He tried to back away and wound up near the bedroom. With his options limited, he hurried into the room and slammed the door shut.

“Mike?” Bev called from her place at the bathroom sink when she heard the slam. She went to open her door, but it wouldn’t budge. “MIKE!” She frantically banged on the door, though it probably did no good. Her screaming for Mike soon turned into screams of terror as blood began to seep into the bathroom.

“BEV!” Mike was about to come to her rescue when he was forced back as if something grabbed him.

Or rather, someone. “I thought I told you to stay the fuck away, you little bitch.”

“Henry Bowers,” even speaking the name of his childhood tormentor sent shivers down his spine.

But even as an adult, Henry Bowers was still pretty damn terrifying. Bowers pulled out his switchblade. He switched the blade and tauntingly pointed it toward Mike. “You should’ve died in that fire with your druggie parents.” As Bowers inched closer, Mike backed toward the door. “Don’t worry: if the flames don’t get you,” he swished his knife around, “I will.” With no warning, Bowers lunged for Mike.

Like Bowers, Mike was also taller and stronger. He was putting up a valiant resistance and doing all that he could to keep the knife away. The two of them were rolling around the room in this desperate struggle and it wasn’t clear who was going to come out the victor.

Bev, meanwhile, was standing as high as she could on the toilet as the blood began to fill the small washroom. She was going to have to face facts that she was literally going to drown in blood.

She felt a small glimmer of hope as someone on the other side managed to get the door slightly open. “Beverly.”

Well that hope was gone.

“No,” she covered her ears—as if that was going to protect herself from Alvin Marsh. Maybe drowning in blood was the best option.

“Bevvie," Alvin's beckoning voice was menacing, "come to Daddy now.”

“No!” This was when Beverly lost her footing on the now slippery toilet and fell into the river of blood. She struggled to keep her head above the blood, but the current was too strong and the room too narrow.

“Are you still my little girl, Beverly?” Those words elicited a determined anger in Beverly. She managed to sit atop the toilet and put her hands on each side of the wall. “ARE YOU STILL MY LITTLE GIRL?”

“Not anymore, Asshole,” as hard as she could, she kicked at his hands. This was enough to get him away from the door. Still in the position she was in, Beverly repeatedly kicked at the now ajar door with all her might until it opened, the blood spilling out and dousing out some of the flames that had built up outside. Covering her mouth, she ran out into the flames and kicked open the bedroom door. “Mike!”

Neither Mike nor his opponent seemed to notice her. Without putting much thought into it, Bev ran back into the kitchen, grabbed the bowl that wasn’t on fire, and went back into the bedroom to wait for the right moment. When that moment came, she bashed the bowl as hard as she could into Henry Bowers’ skull, sending him completely to the ground. This was the opportunity Mike had needed. When the knife fell out if Bowers’ grasp, Mike took it into his own. With a battle cry, he thrusted the knife into his enemy as hard as he could. He did this a few more times in the spots he knew would inflict the most damage.

“Are you okay?” Bev had inquired about Mike’s well-being when he stopped to catch his breath.

Mike eyed his comrade. “I’d hug you right now, but you’re covered in blood.”

“Hopefully the next place we go is somewhere with water…or at least a shower.”

“What happened to you?”

“Do you really want to know?”

“Maybe when all is said and done.” He held out his hand. “Thanks for having my back.”

She accepted his hand and shook it. “A promise is a promise.” She pulled her hand away. “Now what are we supposed to do?”

“Beats me,” Mike started to inspect the room. “Hey,” something in the corner of the bedroom had caught his eye.

“What’d you find?” He held up a backpack with the trademark _Superman _logo emblazoned in the center. The backpack had some wear and tear to it, but still seemed to be in working condition. “Some ratty old backpack?”

“This is _m_y old backpack,” Mike explained. “My very first one. I bought this with some money I earned doing some odd jobs and everyone looked at me funny when I bought it because I was the homeschooled, black kid. Don’t you remember? I’d bring this backpack whenever I stayed over with the guys or came to the clubhouse.”

“I really don’t remember, Mike.”

Mike looked inside. “I don’t believe it,” this came out in a whisper.

“What?”

“The artifact we need Ritual of Chud is in here. I don’t know how or why, but it is. And…” he pulled out some sort of book, “…my scrapbook.” He perused through it. “I put this together after the summer we spent together. I never wanted to forget what had happened.” He paused. “I never wanted to forget you guys.”

The scenery started to disappear before their eyes. Once it was all said and done, the only thing that remained was the bedroom door. Cautiously, the two approached the door. “What do you think’s on the other side?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is it weird that I’m not afraid?”

Mike put on his backpack and adjusted the straps. “After all this shit, nothing’s weird to me anymore.”

This made Bev laugh. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you swear.”

“There’s a first for everything. Speaking of first,” Mike stepped aside and gestured for Bev to go first. “After you, milady.”

“Thank you, good sir,” the two shared a laugh together as Beverly went through the door.

The laughing was then brought to an abrupt end when the door slammed shut before Mike even had the chance to move. “HEY!” he tried to open the door to no avail. “Bev! Beverly, can you hear me?” The ground below the door started to shake, which caused Mike to slowly back away. When the quaking stopped, the door opened. “Beverly?” no answer. “None of this makes any god damn sense, but…” Mike took a deep breath and walked through the door.


	8. Castle on a Cloud (Above)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, after a long delay (sorry about that) we made it to the “Above and Below” section. I suppose it makes sense to feature the “above” portion first.
> 
> The last story was "Goldilocks and the 3 Bears" by the way. I give a reason in this chapter in case it doesn't add up.

“Yeah, well at least we’re not being dropped onto the hard ground,” Richie was saying as he Eddie came upon their destination. “Huh,” this new place seemed to be nothing but a sky blue backdrop. “What? Is this the wild blue yonder?”

“Richie,” Eddie stomped his foot, “you feel that?”

“Yeah,” when Richie touched the white ground, “that’s unusually soft ground.” When he kicked at it, pieces of white fluff scattered around. “Shouldn’t solid ground be—oh, I don’t know—_solid_?” He huffed. “Is it wrong to say I miss all the trees? At least it was something to look at.”

“Uh, Richie,” Eddie was kneeling a few feet away from him, “how’s this for something to look at?”

Richie joined Eddie. “Holy shit.” Boy was that going to be a long way down.

“I think we’re on a cloud. Soft, white ground against a blue backdrop.”

“What the fuck are we doing in the sky?”

Eddie had taken notice of something else. “And where the fuck did _that_ door come from?”

“You mean that wasn’t there before?”

“This isn’t the same door we used.”

“And you know this _how_?”

“How about the fact that this door is a darker shade of blue than the one we came out of?”

“You seriously expect me to have paid attention to the color of our door?”

“I expect nothing and am still let down.” As the door opened, Eddie started backing toward Richie. As if by instinct, Richie stood in front of Eddie as if he was a shield.

They both let their guard down when Beverly Marsh came onto the scene. “Bev!”

“Guys!” an excited Beverly ran into Richie’s waiting arms while a disgusted Eddie stayed back. “I’m so relieved to see you guys.”

“Please believe me when I say I’m relieved to see you too,” Eddie was hesitant to approach her, “but I just don’t want to touch you.”

“Bev,” at this moment, Richie didn’t care that he embraced his blood-coated friend, “are you okay?”

She nodded. “I promise it’s all dried blood. It’s not mine either.”

“Still not reassuring,” Eddie muttered under his breath.

“Not your blood?” Richie was still worried. “Then who’s fucking blood is it?”

“I wish I could tell you,” Beverly answered honestly. “I was using the bathroom at some shack when blood just came gushing into the bathroom. I was afraid I was going to drown in it.”

“There’s no way to tell if it’s one of the other Losers’ blood? Bill? Stan? Ben? Mike?”

“Mike!” She looked around. “Where is he? He should be here?”

“We’ve only seen you,” Eddie informed her. “Richie and I came through a door and wound up here. Then your door showed up and it’s just you.”

Beverly went to open her door, but it seemed to be locked. She tried to break it down, but it wouldn’t budge. “He has to be here! He was with me in the woods!”

“You were in woods too?” Richie asked her.

“But with Mike?” Eddie put emphasis on this particular aspect. “_Just _Mike?”

“Just Mike,” Bev confirmed. “We came across this shack with Bowers and my father inside, then Mike found his old backpack, and this door appeared.” Eddie and Richie exchanged glances. “What?” Eddie showed her his inhaler. “Okay?”

“This was my old inhaler. When I took it, a door appeared for me and Richie.”

Richie nodded in agreement. “Yeah, but we weren’t exactly in a shack. It was a house made of gingerbread with some scary, old lady living there.”

"Who reminded me a lot of our middle school teacher---"

"Mrs. Kersh!" both Richie and Eddie remembered at the same time.

"Holy shit, you remember her?"

"Yeah!" Richie confirmed. "God, I swear that bitch was out to get me. A lot of kids said she was a witch and honestly, I bought into it."

"What a mean, bitter, old woman."

"Just like your---"

“Okay,” Beverly was analyzing the situation. “You and Richie and me and Mike are sent to some kind of wooded area. We’re led to these houses and face off some terrifying people,” she pointed to Eddie. “You take something from your youth and a door shows up. Mike takes something from his youth and another door shows up. You and Richie are here, but it’s just me and not Mike.”

“You think Mike’s with the others?”

“God, I hope so.”

“Yeah, but your thing seems way more realistic,” Eddie felt the need to comment. “Need I remind you, Richie told you we were in a house made of _gingerbread_?”

Something dawned on Bev. “Like in _Hansel and Gretel_?”

Eddie snapped his fingers in realization. “I knew that was fucking familiar!”

Richie, meanwhile, didn’t seem to get it. “Why are you bringing up that Jeremy Renner action movie?”

“Not that stupid _Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters _movie, Asshole! Don’t you remember that story from when we were younger? Hansel and Gretel are two kids who get lost in the woods and come across a gingerbread house where a witch lives.”

“So…are you saying you and I in some kinda lame children’s story?”

“Anything’s possible with that fucking clown.”

“Bev didn’t sound like she was in a lame children’s story. She and Mike are in some shack with her creepy dad and our childhood bully. I don’t remember any kid’s story like that. Look around, Eds---”

“Don’t call me Eds.”

“---how do you explain where we are now?”

“Pennywise is getting creative,” Beverly stated in nonchalance. “I think you have a point, Eds.”

Eddie shot her a puzzled look. “I do?”

Richie focused on another aspect of what Beverly had said. “Hey, how come you don’t get pissed when she calls you Eds?”

“Beep, beep, Richie,” oddly enough, both Eddie and Beverly said this at the same time.

This added a bit of levity to the situation as Bev laughed. “I remember that. We used to say that to shut Richie up.”

“By all means: remember things at my expense,” Richie grumbled. “Have your fun and not explain what the fuck we’re doing here.”

“Okay,” Bev veered back on topic, “we were in a library. What if Pennywise used a book of children’s stories as a sort of…a sort of battleground to fight him in? Mike’s artifact somehow made it here; was there anything else nearby?”

Eddie thought back. “Just some journals Mike had.”

“No,” Richie also recalled something, “no there was a glowing book! I remember a glowing book!”

“Holy shit, I remember Richie saying that!” Eddie struggled to word his next inquiry. “So basically all of us were somehow transported into a children’s book by a demon clown?”

“Well, when you put it that way…”

“That’s really the only thing that makes sense,” Beverly decided. After a brief pause, she came upon another notion. “Yes! It has to! And that book is a series of stories so what if everyone else went to different stories? You guys were in _Hansel and Gretel_ and I was in…” she blanked. “I should know this. I grew up on fairy tales. Always wishing I could be the princess.”

“Maybe yours was some fucked up Disney movie,” Richie suggested.

“Do you realize how stupid that sounds?” Eddie questioned him.

“Okay, maybe hers _became_ some fucked up Disney movie. What was that one about the long-haired chick in the tower?”

“I sincerely doubt it was _Rapunze_l.”

“I liked the guy in that movie.”

“I’ll bet you did.”

“No,” Beverly considered her options. “It was a story that was set in the woods, it had a shack, two enemies that lived there…” something occurred to her. “Like in _Goldilocks_.”

“And _The Three Bears_?”

“When Mike and I got there, there were bowls of food on the table. In _The Three Bears_, they had bowls of food on their table.”

“But there were only two with you and Mike.”

“Three if you count the demonic clown who probably brought them there,” Richie inputted. “If not, her and Mike make it four in that shack to compensate for the characters.” The others gave him looks of impressed confusion. “I can bring logic up in this bitch too.”

“Tactful,” Eddie looked around. “Now we’re meeting up in some other children’s story that takes place in the clouds.”

“Guess that means we’re out of the woods,” Richie was the only one who chuckled at his wordplay. “Sorry for trying to add some levity; guess I’ll just go fuck myself.”

“Come on,” Bev was going to be the one to take action, “let’s start looking for a way out. Maybe if we find it, we can meet up with everyone when it’s all over.” She was ahead as they went in the only direction they could that wouldn’t cause them to plummet to what was certain death.

Eventually, their path led them to a rather enormous castle on a cloud. “Holy shit,” Richie couldn’t help being awed. “I have some questions.”

“Let’s find them inside, shall we,” Beverly easily fit through the crack at the bottom of the front door. Richie and Eddie exchanged glances before Richie followed her into the castle. “Whatever we’re looking for has to be in here.”

“But what exactly are we looking for?” Eddie questioned.

“More than likely something from our past.”

Richie couldn’t help but fixate his attention to the giant statues in the massive foyer. A fox, a rabbit, a cat, a turtle, an eagle, a sheep, and a bear. But what was interesting about the bear statue, was the name at the base of it. “This isn’t what we're looking for is it?” Richie drew their attention. “I was hoping whatever we had to get we could actually pick up.”

“Oh-kay,” Beverly was the next to notice the statue’s base, “now _I_ have some questions.”

“That’s my name,” Eddie didn’t need to physically point that out, but he did anyway. “Why does that statue have my name on it?”

“Maybe this is some kind of coincidence.”

Eddie looked around at the other statues. “It can’t be.” He approached the sheep’s statue. “Because Mike’s name is on this one. And look,” he hurried to the eagle statue, “Stan’s name is on this one!”

“Stan the Man loved his birds,” Richie felt the need to say.

“Richie is on the fox, Ben on the rabbit, Bill on the cat, and…”

Bev was the one to vocalize the thought. “Where’s my name?”

“And how come Eddie gets to be the bear?” it seemed natural Richie would take focus on this.

“Do you guys think that maybe, whatever we’re looking for, has to do with me? You guys found something that belonged to Eddie, Mike and I found something of his, so maybe that’s a clue that we have to find something of mine.”

“Like what? Something with your name on it?”

“It’s possible.”

“Yeah,” Eddie had a “but” coming, “but where are we going to find it?”

“Somewhere in here.” She led the way down the foyer where the paths began to diverge. “I’m just not sure which way to go.” A path to the left and the right led to different rooms, there was a staircase diagonal to the room on the right, or they could just keep going straight down the seemingly never-ending foyer.

Richie sniffed the air. “I say we go the way of the food.” His nose led him to the room on the left, Bev and Eddie following. Richie’s gut had led them to a sort of dining room area. At the center was a table with a spiral base that made it somewhat (if not conveniently) easy for the trio to make their way up. After that trek, all they had to do was come up to the table through a crack that they could easily fit through—everything was enormously massive in size for them after all. “Dibs on the Jello!” Richie ran toward the small plate where a helping of green Jello rested.

“Too bad I’m too short for the Diet Coke,” Bev jested as she pointed to the tall can in front of her. “That looks good though,” she made her way over to a plate with a sandwich on it.

Eddie, meanwhile, felt off about all of this. “There’s something…something familiar about all this. The dishware, the food, the Diet Coke; I mean this has to be a trap.”

“A delicious trap,” Richie commented before shoving another portion of Jello into his mouth.

“Why does this all seem familiar to you?” Beverly questioned Eddie. Before Eddie could answer, there was a thud. This thud was accompanied by the ground beginning to shake. “Are those---” The same thing happened again, “---are those footsteps.”

“Oh God, please no,” Eddie was nearly begging.

“Eddie?”

“If this is *_THUD_* what I think this is *_THUD_*, then this is _Jack and the Beanstalk_.”

“Then we’re about *_THUD_* to meet *_THUD_* the giant?”

“Sad to say *_THUD_* I’ve got a pretty good idea *_THUD_* who the giant is.” The footsteps got closer. “But I hope I’m wrong.” The giant came into view. “I’m not.”

“Is that…” Richie adjusted his glasses to ensure he wasn’t seeing things. “…holy shit, Eds, that’s your mom!”

A giant Sonia Kaspbrak turned toward her table and noticed the trio there. Well, at least one particular member. “EDDIE-BEAR!” When she ran, the others feared this castle was going to crumble. “Eddie-Bear, is it really you?”

Eddie gave a meek wave. “Hi, Mommy.” He screamed as the giant picked him up.

“Oh Eddie-Bear,” she held him close to her massive breasts. “You’ve come back to me.”

“Hey Mrs. K,” this new greeting got Sonia to divert her attention to the other two. “Long time no see,” Richie was trying to play it cool. “And may I say you’re looking lovely. Have you lost weight?”

Mrs. Kaspbrak scoffed at the sight of these two. “Don’t think I don’t remember the two of you. Yes,” she looked directly at Beverly. “I remember what they’ve said about you Miss Marsh. I told you I didn’t want a dirty girl like you around my son.” Mrs. K looked back at Richie. “And you with the dirty mouth. I’ve heard them say things about you too. I don’t want any of your kind corrupting my sweet, Eddie-Bear.” She set Eddie back onto the table as she reached for a small box on the shelf above the only dining room chair. She emptied out of a few of the box’s contents—sewing supplies—picked up Beverly and Richie, and dropped them into the box. After setting the box back onto the shelf, she sat in the chair and smiled at Eddie. “I’ve missed you, Eddie.” She meant to rub Eddie’s cheek, but her finger was so large it stroked his entire body. “And how handsome you look.”

In the box, Bev and Richie were desperately trying to find a way to open the box. But the door was too high for them, even with Bev standing atop of Richie. “Guess we’re stuck here until she’s ready to eat us,” Richie was ready to admit defeat.

“Richie!” Beverly, however, was not.

“It’s too high up! We stand no chance in this place. We’re too small!”

“Bigger isn’t always better.”

“Sure as hell is here.”

“We’re going to get out of here, Richie!”

“Yes, in a very small body bag.”

“Seriously? You need to stop talking like that.”

“What else is the dirty mouthed boy supposed to say in this situation? All I was ever good for was telling jokes.”

“Richie, that’s not---”

“I can’t fight off this clown. I never could. Not without all of you guys anyway. I’m no hero! Not a knight in shining armor, or a Prince Charming. I’m the unfunny jester who makes all the jokes to lighten the mood.” He slumped the floor of the box. “What good am I?”

Bev sat down beside him and reached for his hand, but he quickly pulled it away. “I saw your face when she said that to you.” Richie looked at her. “That must have really hurt.”

“I don’t know---”

“You do, Honey. I think you’ve always known.” When she reached for his hand, he didn’t pull away. “Despite everything they said about you back then, I never thought any less of you. I still love you.”

“I don’t know if you heard the rumors, but I’m not into chicks,” this made Bev laugh and curl into Richie. “I love you too, Bevvie.” They sat in comfortable silence for a second. “Can I tell you a secret?”

“Sure.”

“Up until I got to know you, I did believe everything they said about you. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, well you never let on or treated me the way others did.”

“Bill was the one who told us not to buy into what they said.”

“Bill,” she said his name almost dreamily.

“Is it wrong to say we all had a crush on him in those days? I mean we never acted on it or did a secret admirer thing.”

“Secret admirer?” something sparked in Bev’s memory. Richie couldn’t help but jump as she broke her hold of him and began digging through the box. “Richie, help me look for a postcard.”

“A postcard?”

“It has a lighthouse on the front, and a poem from a secret admirer on the other side.”

“Um…okay,” he did as she asked.

“There’s a chance it may be covered in blood.”

“Gross.”

“Hey, I think I…” Bev picked up her discovery, “…I can’t tell though.”

“If I may,” Richie reached for something in her pocket. That something was a lighter. He flicked it on and inched it closer. “This it?”

“Yes!” she read it over. “_Your hair is winter fire, January embers. My heart burns there too_.”

“Isn’t poetry supposed to rhyme?”

“Not always. I almost forgot about this.”

“Not sure how talking about Bill made you remember that?”

“What?”

“I remember Haystack saying that to you after he kissed you.” A puzzled Beverly looked at him. “You were like hypnotized or something and Ben planted one on you and it brought you back to reality. Then you say that ‘January embers’ part and he says his heart burns there too.”

“Ben?”

“He’s always had the hots for you. God, you should have seen him when we found you and you wouldn’t respond. The guy was desperate. Hey, that was like a fairy tale thing too.”

“I have to find him.”

“Sure. We find Ben, we hook you two up, you kiss; when we’re back in Derry, you guys get a room. Happily ever after.”

“This poem was what I needed to find! We’re going to get out of here.”

“And how exactly are we going to do that?”

As if on cue, the top of the box opened. Richie and Beverly couldn’t help but smile when they saw who was waiting for them. “Eddie!”

“Shh,” he quieted them, “my mom fell asleep. We may not have much time, so hurry up,” he lowered a piece of yarn into the box. Eagerly, Bev was the first to climb up with Richie following behind (and not complaining oddly enough).

“I knew you’d come for us,” Bev said to Eddie has she pulled him in for a hug.

“Guess that sewing stuff she took out of the box came in handy.”

“I found what we need to get out of here.”

“Great.”

Richie was the next out. He and Eddie were about to hug, but something prevented Richie from doing so. “Thanks a million, Eduardo,” Richie awkwardly patted Eddie’s back. “So where’s the door?”

“What?”

“Bev said she found her thing. Shouldn’t some door magically show up?” The others hadn’t considered this. “Not exactly the answer I was expecting.”

“Maybe the door’s back on the cloud where we met up!” Beverly suggested. “Come on!”

“Quietly!” Eddie warned as Bev took charge. “Mom can get cranky if her nap’s disturbed.” As Richie opened his mouth, Eddie cut him off. “Now is seriously not the time, Rich!”

As quiet as they could, the trio made their way back down. They had made it back into the foyer when they heard a banshee scream. “THEY’VE TAKEN MY EDDIE!”

“Oh shit!” the three of them tried to run, but the shaky ground proved to be an obstacle.

“EDDIE!” Giant Sonia had spotted them. “COME BACK!” she hurried over to them as they tried to hurry away. Fortunately, the three of them made it through the door. Unfortunately for them, Sonia easily broke the door down. “GET BACK HERE!”

“Fuck!” Richie stumbled a bit as he caught up to Bev and Eddie. “Guys, which way was the cloud?”

“We came in from one direction!” Eddie remembered.

“Yeah, but we ran out of the wrong castle door!” Beverly figured. They turned back, but Mrs. Kaspbrak was close behind. “Let’s find a way around!”

Something in the distance caught Richie’s eye. “How about we head south?”

“The beanstalk!” both Bev and Eddie said in unison.

“Get Eddie out of here first!” Richie ordered. “He’s the one she’s after.” Eddie nodded and made his descent down. “You’re next, Bev!”

“You’re not that fast, Rich. You go next.”

“We need you! It’s your thing that gets us out of here.” The ground rattled as the footsteps got closer. “GO!” Bev didn’t argue and started climbing down. Richie readied himself to start climbing down when Bev was also out of view—narrowly avoiding Mrs. K’s foot. He wasn’t sure how far down he had gotten when Mrs. K began to climb down. “GUYS, HURRY!”

Bev gave a nervous scream before looking down. “I don’t see a door!” All she saw was a wave crashing into the shore.

“Hey!” Eddie called up to them after the wave subsided, “hey, I think I see other people! HEY!” he called to some figures below him.

Beverly saw the figures on the shore. “Are those…” she continued climbing down, meeting up with Eddie. “Eddie, keep going.”

“Right,” he resumed his climbing.

“HEY!” this seemed to get the figures’ attention. "HEY, UP HERE!"

One of the figures seemed to come closer to the beanstalk. Was it her imagination, or were they shouting something? She swore she heard a very faint, “Beverly!”

“Ben?” trying to climb while looking down at the same time caused her to lose her footing. Next thing she knew, she was falling closer to the ground while screaming.

“BEVERLY!” both Richie and Eddie she could make out crying her name.

Bev tried to reach for something, anything to grasp onto, but there was nothing. Well, this was it. She closed her eyes and braced for impact, but the impact never came.

“BEV!” Eddie, who had a closer vantage point to the ground, had watched her fall into a bright light. And since this light encompassed the entire bottom of the beanstalk, it wasn’t exactly hard to miss. “Richie!” he called up to his comrade, “Richie, we have to go into the light if we want to get out of here!”

“Are you sure?” Richie called back to him.

“No!.” Eddie looked back and forth between Richie and the light, which he swore looked like it had faded in size. It was only when he noticed his giant mother making her way closer that Eddie made the decision. “You’re just gonna have to trust me!” With that, he let go of the beanstalk and landed in the light.

“EDDIE!” A terrified Richie clung to the stalk. “This isn’t happening! This isn’t real!” When he looked down, he noticed the light was getting smaller. “What, hey! Stop shrinking!” As the light got smaller, Mrs. K got closer. With a final, “Fuck,” Richie took a deep breath, and jumped toward the ground where he was swallowed by the light.


	9. Down Where it's Wetter (Below)

“None of this is adding up,” Stan was saying to Bill as they continued walking. “You think this door leads us back to Derry?”

“No idea,” Bill was trying to remain steadfast. “I just hope we meet up with the others.” A squishy sort of noise as they grew closer to the door caused Bill to look down. “What the---”

“Is it me, or is the ground soaking wet?”

“It’s probably n-n-n-nothing. Come on.” As Bill and Stan got closer to the door, the water started to rise. Water was coming in from under the door, and it seemed to be coming in fast as they got closer.

“Bill?”

“D-d-don’t panic.”

“Don’t panic! We’re going to fucking drown!” They were trying to keep their heads above water. Stan struggled to stay afloat as Bill went under. “BILL!”

Under the water, Bill swam to the door. He managed to get it open and the water spilled back out of the door, carrying the people along in it’s current. When it all seemed safe, the guys tried to get to their feet…

…only to find out they didn’t have any.

“AH!” Stan couldn’t keep his eyes off the light blue fins that had taken place of his legs. “WHAT’S HAPPENING?”

Bill couldn’t help but flop his green fins in disbelief. “I th-th-think we’re mermaids.”

“Mermaids? I can’t even swim as a human and I’m a fucking MERMAID! I thought wherever we were supposed to go, it was supposed to make sense!”

“Maybe it w-w-will if we find the oth-oth-others.”

“_Others_? We’re at the bottom of a fucking ocean just the two of us!”

“Y-y-you don’t know th-th-that.”

“Where else do you find mermaids, Bill?”

“Mer_men_, Stan.”

“Does it really fucking matter? We don’t have any legs! One minute we’re walking to a door on our own two feet and the next…” he gestured to his tail.

The sound of another rushing wave got Bill’s attention. “You hear that?” He began to swim around. “It sounded like when we opened our door and the water brought us down here.”

“What are you---”

“I think someone else is here.” Bill effortlessly swam toward the noise.

“Bill, wait!” Stanley was surprised how well he was keeping up with Bill despite not being able to swim.

“L-l-look!” he pointed to someone at the bottom of the reef. “I think…” Bill swam closer. “It’s Ben!” Like Bill and Stan, Ben had been brought to the ocean floor but in lieu of legs, he now had a brown fin. “Ben,” Bill tried to shake him awake. This got Ben to stir. Once upright, Ben started to cough up water. “Stan, he’s okay!”

“Thank God,” Stan soon joined them and helped Ben upright. “Ben, buddy, are you alright?”

“I think so,” he fully opened his eyes. “Uh…am I underwater?”

“Believe me, we’re just as confused as you are.”

“I don’t care,” Ben surprised the others by pulling them in for a tight hug. “You guys are here.” He took notice. “And you’re mermen?”

“See, he gets it,” Bill felt the need to point out.

“Wait, am I…” Ben looked down. “Holy shit! Where are my legs?”

“Ben, what d-d-did you mean by ‘y-y-you guys are here'?”

“It’s exactly what I meant. You guys are here! I’m not alone in some tower.”

“Alone in a tower?” Ben nodded. “Why were you in a t-t-t-tower?”

“I don’t know. I’m in the library, the clown shows up with a bright light, I come to in some tower, and it’s just me. Well, I thought it was me and Bev, but it---”

“Wait, you saw Bev?”

“No, it was Pennywise disguised as Bev. Wherever I was, I was alone. Have you guys seen her?”

“We only saw Pennywise disguised as Bill’s brother,” Stan's reply dashed Ben's hopes. “Before we found you, it was just me and Bill.”

“What about Eddie, or Richie, or Mike?”

“W-w-we haven’t seen them,” Bill solemnly informed Ben. “You’re the f-f-first person we’ve met.”

“Beverly!” a new voice came a few feet from the scene. “Beverly, are you here?”

“Mikey?” this time Ben led the way. “Hey, Mikey!”

The figure in the white fin turned around to see three other figures with fishtails. “Guys!” Mike went in for a group hug, to which the others obliged. “Boy am I glad to see you,”

“Were you just calling for Beverly?” Mike nodded. “You’ve seen her?”

Another nod. “We were together in the forest,” he took his backpack off his back and showed it off. “After I found my old backpack a door appeared. She went through first, but it closed before I could follow her. When another door showed up, I went through that and now I’m here.”

Stan shook Bill’s arm in excited realization. “Bill, that happened to us!” He noticed the looks he was getting. “Bill picks up his old boat and then the whole place just disappeared except for a door.”

“Y-y-yeah,” Bill reached into his shirt pocket where the _S.S. Georgie_ was awaiting. “We go th-th-through the door and wind up h-h-h-here.”

Ben reached into his shirt pocket where he had tucked his yearbook page. “Something like that happened to me,” Ben produced his item. “Except I follow a bright light out a window and am suddenly underwater.”

“So Beverly’s not here?” Mike questioned.

“We haven’t seen her.”

“How about Richie and Eddie?”

“We haven’t s-s-seen them either,” Bill confessed.

“And I hate to admit it,” Stan began, “but I actually miss their banter right now. When that was going on, at least we knew they were okay.”

“Pennywise is behind this,” Mike deduced. “He’s trapped us in some kind of realm where we face him in forests or underwater.”

“We what now?”

“It only makes sense,” Ben agreed with Mike. “We had to deal with Pennywise before in our respective places; we’re bound to face him underwater.”

“Fuck.”

“Be ca-ca-careful,” Bill warned. “If It showed up as Georgie or Beverly, then there’s no tell-telling what or who It could be.”

“Oh, that makes it so much easier to trust one another.” Stan had a point. “How do I know known of you are the clown in disguise? How do you know _I’m_ not?”

“Are you?”

Stan paused. “I wish I had the answers.”

“I promise I’m not,” Ben tried to assure, “and I’ll prove to you guys any way that I can. The last time he disguised himself as people we love and---”

“Hey, whoa,” Mike interrupted, “I do _not_ love Henry Bowers.”

“Ben,” Bill had focused on another aspect, “you _love_ Beverly?” Ben wasn’t quite sure how to answer that.

“Regardless,” Stan was the one to bring everyone on track, “we have to be on our guard.” He looked between his friends. “What else do we have to do?”

“Well,” Mike began, “from what we’ve described: it seems has if we have to find a token from our childhood. I have mine, Ben has his, and Bill has something. I guess we’re going to find something of yours, Stan.”

“Something of mine I love from childhood?” Mike nodded. “Huh,” Stan blew out a breath as he considered this. “Well…I think it’s useless to look for a dead parakeet.”

Ben snapped his fingers in realization. “What if what we’re looking for is bird related?”

Stanley shrugged in understanding at this notion. “I do love birds.”

“Okay so we stay on our guard, we look for something Stan loved from childhood—possibly bird related—and we go home?”

“Prob-probably have to face a kill-killer clown s-s-somewhere in between,” Bill added. Stan groaned at this. “It’s in-inev-inevitable.”

“Yeah, inevitable, I know,” was what Stan appeared to grumble as he subconsciously touched a scar on his face. A faded memento from a similar battle twenty-seven years ago.

Bill gingerly pulled Stan’s hand away. “It’s not going to happen again, Stanley; not on my watch. We’re all getting out of here unscathed.”

“You promise, Bill?”

“Did I stutter?” Bill patted Stan’s back. Stan covered Bill’s hand in his, took a deep breath, and nodded rather boldly. “Losers stick together, no one separates.”

“Agreed,” both Ben and Mike agreed simultaneously. Stan gave another nod to indicate his agreement.

“Oh,” Mike reached for his backpack and pulled out the artifact, “I have what we need to defeat It once and for all.”

Ben recognized the item. “That’s the thing you were showing off just before---”

“---just before the clown showed up, yeah. Not only is it a moot point trying to burn our items underwater, but we need all of us in order for the ritual to work. When we collect Stan’s item, we make a serious effort to find Bev, Richie, and Eddie. If what we all said happens does happen, then we’ll be taken out of this place and hopefully reunited with them.”

“We will be,” Bill held firm on this. “Which way should we go first?”

“Whoa, no way!” Ben seemed to have chosen his own way as he excitedly swam toward a gathering of various underwater creatures. “These kinds of creatures would never cluster together.” He laughed with delight as various schools of fish encircled him. “How cool is this!?”

“Ben, I think we should---”

“Let him have this,” Stan cut Bill off. “Remember how he debated between architecture and marine biology when we were picking majors?” They all saw Ben’s glee as he interacted with some passing sea turtles. “Let’s take a breather.” He began to sing the opening bars to the Oscar winning song of 1989, somewhat embarrassing Bill. Stan “danced” around Mike. “Come on Mikey, you know this! It’s a classic!”

“It’s from a nearly thirty year old movie,” Mike pointed out through his laughter.

“Thirty? It came out Thanksgiving, twenty-seven years ago.” A sudden clap of thunder was enough to startle all the animals away. “Well that killed the mood.”

“Guess you said the magic n-n-number,” Bill quipped.

“So it was something I said.”

“Hey guys,” was Mike the only one to notice, “where’s Ben?”

“Shit!”

“BEN!” Bill started calling for their friend.

“BEN!” Mike and Stan were doing the same.

“BEN, WHERE ARE YOU?”

“Guys!” Ben hurried over to them. “You gotta come see this.” He led them a few feet away to a graveyard of sunken ships. “I helped free a seahorse from an anemone when I found this. What if Stan’s item is in one of these ships?”

“Yeah, but one which?” Stanley retorted back. Something caught Bill’s attention. “Bill?”

He stopped in front of one of the ships. “Think I have a pretty g-g-good idea which one.” The others swam over to behold the sunken remains of a much larger _S.S. Georgie_. “It’s like It’s t-t-taunting us.”

“Just be ready,” Mike warned as he swam ahead. “Stan, what are we looking for?”

“I’m not sure,” Stan responded back as he searched amidst various debris. “Like Ben said, it probably has to do with birds.”

“Don’t you remember anything significant back then with birds?” Ben questioned.

“Besides my dead parakeet? Not really?” Stan resumed his searching until he came across something. “Hey...what...I think this is it!” He picked up the item in question. “Of course! How could I forget about this?” He proudly displayed his book. “_Field Guide to the Birds_.” He skimmed through the literature. “God, I used to bother you guys endlessly with facts from this book.”

“If that’s it,” Bill began, “shouldn’t s-s-something bad be hap-happening right now?”

“Bill has a point,” Stan passed the book to Mike. “Could you put this in your backpack?” Mike nodded and took off his backpack. “Isn’t there supposed to be a door or something to just magically show up?”

“Unless that’s what It expects,” Mike stated as he adjusted the backpack straps on his shoulder. “I was actually expecting us to turn back---” he was cut off by Bill gasping for breath. “Bill?” Stan then started doing the same. "Stan, are you-"

“AH!” Ben cried out in pain and reached for his tail. “Why does it feel like I’m being split?”

Without explaining what was going on, Mike took command. “Get to the surface! NOW!” The men all started to swim up, only to briefly lag behind when Stanley struggled before the others helped him. Once their heads were above water, they (literally) breathed sighs of relief.

After they caught their breaths, Stan broke the silence with, “Now what?”

The others looked around, but once again only Mike took notice. He pointed in the intended direction. “Now we swim for shore.” This made Stan groan.

“Guys,” Ben was grinning, “our legs are back!” The rest of the group took notice that their respective tails were gone. “I guess that’s what that splitting pain was; it was getting rid of our fins.”

“Yeah, but I could swim with those!”

“We’ll help you, Stan,” Bill assured. “Just take it slow.”

“I don’t want to be here all night,” Stan dog paddled to stay afloat. “Can someone just let me ride on their back to shore?”

“Not when you could crush my backpack,” Mike jested back.

“Ben, come on, you’re strong!”

Ben’s boyish smile seemed rather mischievous. “Gotta learn to swim sometime, Stanley,”

“Just because you’re handsome, it doesn’t give you the right to be a jackass.” Ben responded to that by swimming laps around Stan on his back. “Show off.” Ben chuckled as he swam next to Mike.

“The shore’s not that f-f-f-far,” Bill tried to reason with them. “I say we sw-sw-swim for it and…” he trailed off when he noticed Stan staring off into the distance. “Stanley?”

“Patty,” Stan barely spoke above he whispered as he swam past the guys.

“Patty?” Ben questioned this.

“Stan’s wife,” Mike answered back.

“He’s headed for that rock,” Bill observed and took the lead.

As if he was hypnotized, Stan swam—albeit, very clumsily—toward the rock where something was calling to him. Or rather some_one_. As impossible as it was to believe, Patty was sitting at the top of the rock. “Patty, it’s me!”

“Stan?” she called back to him.

“Patty are you alright?”

“I don’t know! I…help me, Stan.”

Stan started to climb the rock where his wife waited. “What are you even doing here?”

Patty frantically flung herself into his arms. “I’m just glad you’re okay. I couldn’t get a hold of you. I went to the library to find you and now I’m here. Stan, what’s going on?”

“I wish I could explain.”

“Stan,” Bill had finished climbing the rock, “Stan, get away from her!”

“What? Bill, this is my wife!”

“No, it’s It in disguise.”

“Stan,” Patty was visibly confused as she clung to him, “what is he talking about?”

“I’ll handle this,” Stan assured her without taking his eyes off Bill. “How can It be in disguise when It’s never seen Patty before?”

“It knows your fears,” Mike reminded as he joined Bill on the crowded rock (Ben waiting close behind in the water). “It probably saw inside your mind. It’s taken on her disguise.”

“How do you know that?”

Mike didn’t answer right away. “I don’t.”

“You’re just gonna have to trust us,” Bill noticed “Patty’s” grip on Stan tighten. “Losers stick together.”

Stan looked at the woman in his embrace, and she returned his look with pleading eyes. “I’m sorry, Patty.” He freed himself from her grasp. “If you were even her.”

Patty blinked in confusion. “What?”

“Whenever my Patty has to be serious, she always calls me ‘Stanley’." Stanley smirked at It. "You get inside our heads all the time, you should’ve probably known that.”

Patty let out a growl, and instantly reached out and grabbed Stan’s wrist. “You’re not going anywhere,” that’s when the claws literally came out. “You shouldn’t even be here, _Stanley_.”

“LET GO!” Mike and Bill were trying to pull Stan out of her grasps. But the entity was stronger and began to change. Replacing the arms, were large claws. One of the claws, had Stan in it's grasp. “STAN!” Stan was screaming for dear life as he was being brought closer. Mike charged after the monster to save Stan, but the monster roughly pushed Mike back with a different claw.

“AH!” Mike clutched onto his bleeding wrist as the monster dragged Stan back into the water. Bill dove in after them while Ben hurried over to the injured Mike. “I’ll be fine!” Mike assured. “Go get Stan,” Ben nodded and went back underneath. Mike tried to get a comfortable position as he tore a piece of his shirt over his wound. As if the claw through the wrist wasn’t enough, he didn’t quite land the right way when he was shoved out of the way. So when this was over: he was either going to have a sprain, or one giant ass bruise.

Mike couldn’t help but recoil as things began to rise out of the water. To his relief, it was Bill and Ben carrying Stan. “Get him to shore, I’ll meet you guys there!”

“Get on my back!” Ben ordered.

“Ben---”

“I’m taking no chances in case that thing resurfaces. Losers stick together, now let’s go.” With a reluctant sigh, Mike got onto Ben’s back and was chauffeured to shore.

Bill seemed to have a strength he didn't know about as he brought Stan to the shore. Once he reached it, he immediately laid Stan on the sand. “Stan!” Bill slapped Stan’s cheek. “STANLEY!” Shaking did no good either. He pressed his ear to Stan’s chest as Ben and Mike rode a wave to the shore. “He’s got a heartbeat! It’s weak, but it’s there.”

“Move!” Ben shoved Bill aside and performed mouth to mouth resuscitation. This seemed to have an effect because Stan began to cough up all the saltwater he had swallowed. Once that was done, he just lolled to the other side.

“I think It got him somehow,” Bill looked for any signs of blood or trauma on Stanley. “It m-m-must have done something when they went un-under.”

“So what do we do to save him!”

This time, Bill was caught off guard by a noise. “Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Ben tried to listen.

Leave it to Mike to notice everything out of the ordinary. “Maybe it came from up there,” Bill and Ben followed his gaze to the giant beanstalk.

“Where the hell did that come from?” Bill questioned.

“I don’t know; I only just saw it.”

“Guys,” Ben was squinting for a better look. “I think someone’s coming down.” He rushed over toward the stalk, ignoring Bill and Mike calling for him to come back. Even though Ben couldn’t see, he could hear. When he approached it, he heard a faint, “Hey, up here!”

Ben instantly recognized that voice. “Beverly!” He looked up toward the beanstalk and he swore that he saw her making her way down. Ben's hopes were no longer dashed and the smile on his face was big and genuine. “BEVERLY!” Ben’s smile soon faded as he watched Beverly fall. “BEVERLY!” he ran toward the beanstalk, ready to catch her. As he did, a bright light seemed to overcome him and the next thing he knew…

Bill had been chasing after Ben until a flash of bright light sent him tumbling backwards. “Ben?” Where the hell did Ben go? “Ben, can you hear me?” It didn’t make sense. One minute his friend was running in this direction and then suddenly he disappears into this light. Bill then watched as something—another person—fell off of the beanstalk and into the light.

“EDDIE!” Was that Richie calling Eddie’s name? Did Eddie just disappear into this light too?

Bill reluctantly stuck his hand through the light. As he did, some sort of force tried to pull him in, but he fought it and was able to pull his hand back. Bill was shaking his hand as he watched the light narrow. “Mike!” He ran back toward Mike and Stan. “Mike, I found the way out,” he pointed toward the beanstalk and the light, “but we have to go now.”

Mike tried to lift Stan. “Help me,” Bill instantly ran to Mike’s and the two of them raced toward the light with an unconscious Stan in tow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because these were one segment each, I tried to keep them a little shorter. Make everyone think it was easy, you know. I mean, did anyone notice the gang actually defeat Pennywise in their segments? Plus I did mention one more part.
> 
> I chose their tail colors based on the colors of their shirts in the first movie if anyone was wondering. Not like a more memorable outfit, but when you first see them—though Bill’s is when you first see him at school and not at his house. "Field Guide to the Birds" was also Young Stan’s book from the 1990 miniseries.
> 
> The last fairy tale was "Jack and the Beanstalk" by the way.


	10. The Losers Reunite (Once Upon a Nightmare 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I didn’t really make it obvious in the last chapter, the previous story was "Little Mermaid".
> 
> And to be nice, I’m going to bring all the Losers together for “Once Upon a Nightmare”.

Beverly was screaming during her descent. Her screaming came to a cease when something caught her. Whatever the something was, it let out an “OOF!” and landed on the ground with Beverly in it’s arms.

Or more appropriately, _his_ arms. “Bev, are you okay?”

Bev turned and came face to face with Ben. “Ben!” she threw her arms around him and pulled him for a hug. "It's really you!"

Ben couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief as he stroked her back. “You have no idea how happy I am to see you."

They quickly pulled apart when they heard someone else scream, and then land with a loud *THUD* on the ground and a subsequent, “OW!”

“EDDIE!” Ben practically threw Beverly out of his arms as he ran over to Eddie. Not that it mattered, because Beverly was soon up and running over to help Eddie up. “Eddie, you okay?”

“Ben?” Ben smiled back at him. “Holy shit, it’s great to see you,” he hugged him. “Why are you wet?”

“Long story; but seriously, are you okay?”

“Physically, yes.” He looked around. “Thankfully I landed on grass.” More screaming distracted them from viewing their surroundings. “And that’ll be Richie.” They watched as Richie landed on the ground near Eddie and let out a whiny groan of pain. “Yep, that’s Richie.”

“Richie!” Ben went over to Richie.

Richie blinked at the person at his side. “Oh my God, Ben!” he hugged his friend. “Damn, I forgot how hot you were.” He backed away. “Were you always this wet?”

“Long story.”

“So, uh…” once he was on his feet, Richie stuffed his hands in his pockets and blew out a breath, “…now what?” A nearby flash of bright light was enough to catch them off guard and shield their eyes. The light didn’t stay for long, just long enough for Bill and Mike to walk through while dragging and unconscious Stan. “Stan!” the others ran to their unconscious friend.

“Oh my God,” Bev seemed to be taking this harder than the others. “Stan, wake up, please.” She looked up at Mike and Bill. “What happened?”

“It got to him,” Mike calmly answered back as he laid Stan on the ground, “but he’s still alive.”

Beverly brushed her hand over Stanley’s scars. “Oh, Stan.”

“Everyone else is okay though?” Ben inquired. The remaining conscious men nodded.

“W-w-why are…” Bill struggled to speak, “…this isn’t D-D-Derry.”

“I don’t know if this is relevant,” Richie pointed to Mike and Bill, “but you guys are also wet.”

“We were under-underwater.”

Richie considered this. “Okay, fine. I mean after all this other shit that's gone down, it’s not hard to believe.”

“We were just in the clouds and climbed down a beanstalk,” Eddie reminded.

“I mean we were transported into a book of kids stories by a demonic, killer clown so…”

This caught Ben off guard. “We were _what_?”

“Remember when we came here?” Bev asked them as she stood up. “When Richie saw the book was glowing and then suddenly we weren’t in the library. When we were piecing together what happened, we figured Pennywise brought us into this book to fight him off.”

“What book?”

“Georgie’s book,” Bill deduced. “It has to be. It was a book of…f-f-fairy tales.”

“Are you saying we’re facing Pennywise in a book of _fairy tales_?”

“I guess so.”

Mike came up with a plan. “If we can figure out which fairy tale we’re in now, we stand a chance of being able to best It. Which ones have we gone through?”

“Richie and Eddie were in _Hansel and Gretel_,” Bev was remembering. “We figured this out while we were in _Jack and the Beanstalk_. Mike, you and I were in the _Three Bears_. And if the four of you were underwater, perhaps you were in some variation of _Little Mermaid_?”

Mike turned to Ben. “Ben, underwater you mentioned something about being alone in a tower?”

Ben put more thought into that. “Yeah, I was being held hostage in a high tower. Like _Rapunzel _without the hair.”

“You were alone?” Bev asked him.

“Is one really alone when they’re locked up with a shape-shifting clown?” This got Bev to let out a small chuckle, which got the same response from Ben.

“Okay,” leave it to Richie to ruin the moment, “can those of us who are attractive flirt _after_ we get out of here?”

“Wow,” Eddie was not impressed, “way to be an asshole, Richie. None of us may even have time to clear things up or confess their love.”

Richie faked gasp. “Why Eds: is this your way of saying you love me?”

“Fuck you.”

“I’m not hearing a ‘no’.”

“Eddie does have a point,” Bill sounded somber. “Not about all the love stuff, but we prob-probably don’t have time. We need to find out where we are and w-w-what we need to do to get out of here.” He sighed. “Ben, Bev, if you do love each other, fine; but now really isn’t the time for flirting.”

“I wasn’t aware that we were,” was what Ben had to say about all that.

Eddie cleared his throat to break the awkward silence. “So uh, what fairy tale were you in Bill?”

“I was with Stan,” Bill began. “We were in the w-w-woods and Georgie was there. He led us to a cottage where It was a w-w-wolf. Georgie was wearing his raincoat.”

“Sounds like _Little Red Riding Hood_,” a weak voice piped up.

“Stan!” Beverly knelt to his level and helped propped him up.

Bill soon bent to help elevate Stan. “You okay, Stanley?”

Stan raised his hand to his head. “I’m okay, just a little dizzy,” as he tried to stand, he lost his balance. Thankfully, Bill and Bev caught him. “Gotta catch my bearings.”

Beverly looked him over. “I don’t see any new injuries on you. Did It do something to you?”

Stan lifted his shirt to show a fresh wound. “If It was trying to pierce my belly button, it missed.” This lightened the mood a little. “As far as I know: claw between the stomach and the torso before nearly being involuntarily drowned.”

“Ben did mouth to…” Bill’s stutter was about to get in the way, “…mouth to mouth. You coughed up water and then p-p-passed out.”

“My body probably needed time to process everything,” Stan suggested as he put down his shirt. “I think it’s best that you guys just leave me here when you face It. I’ll probably not be of much to use you guys anyway.”

“D-d-don’t say that.”

“We need you, Stanley,” Beverly assured him before hugging him. Soon, the others followed suite and enveloped Stan in a group hug.

“I missed this,” Stan quietly admitted. “These feelings of being with you guys, I missed _this_. This is all I’ve wanted since we were young. For us to grow up, stay friends,” He avoided glances when he said, “and for a certain two of you to just admit you love each other and fuck,” this once again made everyone laugh. And just as Stan lightened the mood, he shifted it when he asked, “Once this is all over: are we going to remember each other?” No one answered as everyone started to break from the hug.

“Honestly,” Mike finally broke the silence, “there’s no way to be sure.”

“I don’t want to forget,” Richie confessed.

“Me neither,” Eddie agreed.

“None of us do,” Ben stated the consensus.

“And maybe that’ll be enough for us to remember everything,” Bev concluded.

Bill helped Stan to his feet before addressing the group. “So let’s destroy this thing once and for all.”

“I know just the way to do it,” Mike reached for his backpack and pulled out his artifact. “Each of us had to find something to get to where we are now.” As Stan was about to speak up, Mike held his hand to him, “Yes, Stan, I have your book.” Stan blew out a sigh of relief. “These are tokens from twenty-seven years ago that held significance to us. Once we burn them into this artifact, it’ll help us defeat It once and for all.”

“We _burn_ them?” Richie questioned.

“Yes, this is how the ritual works.”

“So we burn items that have a deep and special meaning for us and this kills the clown?”

“It can only be attacked in it’s true form. This ritual shows us what that true form is.”

“I hope it’s a puppy. Like a Pomeranian or…” he noticed the looks (including an eye roll from Stan), “...I’ll shut up.”

Mike then took out Stan’s book. “I have Stan’s book,” then he held up another book, “and this is my scrapbook of us I made. What all do you have?”

“I have this,” Bill removed the paper boat from his shirt pocket. “It’s the boat I made with…with Georgie and one of the last things I have of him.” He sighed. “Doesn’t have to be good significance does it?” Mike shook his head. “That seems easier to burn than my old bike.”

“Here,” Eddie had his item ready. “This was my inhaler from when we were younger. I doubted I really needed it after the whole gazebo—er, _Placebo_—incident, but this inhaler was still like a kind of security blanket.”

“Mine holds good significance,” Bev started as she took out her postcard. “It’s something that I wish I had held on to,” she held it to her chest, unaware of the longing look Ben was giving her. “The sense of comfort this gave me even in my darkest days…” she bit her lip. “Is there any other way, we can still hold on to---”

“I’m afraid not,” Mike cut her off. “The past must burn with the present. You can still hold on to it until we find the last token though.” Bev nodded and held on to that card as if she were hanging on for dear life.

“I don’t want to let mine go either,” Ben admitted as he unfolded his page. “There’s also good significance in this.”

“What is it?” Stan asked him.

Ben quickly flipped the page over. “It’s a page from my yearbook.”

“Looks like only one person signed it.”

“Yeah,” Ben had his attention solely on Beverly. This time, she noticed. “I probably should have forgotten it, but I couldn’t. I’ve kept this in my wallet…for twenty-seven years.”

“That’s both sweet and pathetic,” leave it to Richie to kill the moment.

Eddie swatted him before inquiring, “Where’s your item, Asshole?”

“That’s what we have to find,” Mike deduced. “Richie, do you have any idea what we’d be looking for?”

“Fuck no,” Richie answered that rather quickly. “Everything from Derry and my childhood was the fucking worst.”

“There has to be something. An old joke book, maybe?”

“I swear there isn’t,” he gave a resigned sigh. “You sure we can’t burn a person? Because Eddie’s mom---”

“Dude,” Eddie stopped him from finishing the thought.

“There has to be something you’re forgetting,” Ben decided. “Since we all found our items in places, maybe we have to look for a place to find Richie’s item.”

“Have we even figured out what fairy tale we’re in? We’re just standing here on grass and---”

“It’s _Sleeping Beauty_,” no one had noticed Beverly was looking in a different direction until she said that.

“Excuse you?”

“That castle,” she pointed at a castle in the distance, “it’s designed just like the one in _Sleeping Beauty_.”

Richie looked at her quizzically. “And you remember this?”

“We grew up on these movies, Rich. Some things you can never forget.”

“Like cartoon architecture?”

“She’s right,” Eddie agreed. “_Sleeping Beauty_’s castle is the one they chose for _DisneyLand_, and I remember that model from my last visit.”

“And who says cartoon architecture isn’t memorable?” Ben felt the need to ask.

“You know what I remember from _Sleeping Beauty_?” Richie sounded tense. “The witch turning into a FUCKING DRAGON.” This also made the others tense a bit.

Eddie considered that. “That was an iconic scene.”

“So It’s true form is a large, fire breathing dragon? No fucking thank you,” Richie started walking away.

“Where are you going?” Stan asked.

“Not that way,” Richie headed for the nearby forest. “I’ll take my chances in the ball-rectractingly, terrifying woods.”

“Rich!”

Bill also headed in Richie’s direction. “I’m coming with you.”

“Bill!”

“Losers stick together.”

“Yeah, but we already dealt with scary forests.”

“To be fair,” Eddie began, “Richie, Bev, and I just ran from a giant monster in a castle.” He went for the woods. “If we follow Richie, maybe we can get an idea of we need to find.”

“Eddie has a point,” Mike agreed.

“Fine,” Stan conceded before he and Mike made their way toward the forest.

“Beverly,” Ben went over to Bev, “you comin’?”

“I’m worried,” she uttered those words barely above a whisper. “If this does play out like _Sleeping Beauty_, then we are going to have face Pennywise as a giant dragon. Or something worse? What do we have to face It with? We don’t have a sword, or a shield, or fairy magic.”

“That’s not the part that has me worried.”

“It’s not?”

“We defeated It last time, and we’re going to do it again this time. I believe that with all my heart, so that’s not what has me worried. No one seems to be focusing on the main plot. The princess falling under the villain’s spell and going into a deep sleep. Do you know the original story, Bev? She slept for a hundred years! What if Pennywise did something to you and…” he couldn’t finish that thought. “Beverly, I just found you; I don’t want to lose you again.”

Beverly took his hand in hers. “Then it’ll be a good thing my Prince Charming is there to give me true love’s kiss.” They smiled as they stared into each other’s eyes; no words were needed for this moment.

But eventually Ben couldn’t help himself. “I thought the prince’s name was Phillip?”

Bev laughed. “Come on,” she squeezed his hand, “let’s catch up with the others.” Hand in hand they went into the woods to catch up with the other Losers.

Bill couldn’t help but smile to himself when he saw Ben and Bev make their way into the woods hand in hand. Beverly Marsh deserved all the happiness and Benjamin Hanscom could give it to her. That was one thing Bill didn’t have to worry about. Now was the time to worry about destroying the killer clown that had taken his brother from him. “Does any…anyone have uh…have any idea what Richie’s thing might be?”

“Eddie,” Stan diverted his attention to Eddie, “any idea?”

Eddie scoffed at him. “What makes you think I’d fucking know?”

“You two just seemed the closest.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Meaning!” Mike said. “Maybe Richie’s token is something that defines who he is as a person; not necessarily pertaining to what held significance or what he loved.”

Richie looked at him. “Token?”

“It’s just another name for the item we’re looking for,” Stan explained. “I’m sure he doesn’t mean an _actual _token.”

“I know what the fuck he meant, Smart Ass,” Richie snidely told him as he put his hands in his pocket (a sort of tick he’s had when he was anxious), “but when he said that…” Richie came to a sudden pause.

Eddie moved closer to Richie. “Rich?”

“I could’ve sworn there wasn’t anything in here earlier,” Richie adjusted his hand so that it could pick up the what wasn’t supposed to be in there. Once in his grasp, he held it up for all to see.

“Holy shit, an _actual _token.”

“Where’d you get that?” Ben asked him.

“I don’t know,” Richie inspected it. “There wasn’t anything in my pockets earlier—I know, I checked for a snack; I’m fucking starving,” he brought it closer to his eyes. “Is that…I remember this. This is a token from the arcade at the _Capitol __Theater_.” A smile was starting to creep on Richie’s face. “All that time I spent there. I mean I probably logged the most hours on _Street Fighter_. When I wasn’t at home with the family or in the clubhouse with you guys, the arcade was like my home away from home.”

“Yeah,” Stanley had a ‘but’ coming, “but an _actual _token?”

“Hey, how did you know what to find your thing? Did you even know what you were looking for? I didn’t, then this thing just appears in my pocket. And guess who’s item we were conveniently looking for? So, yeah, an _actual_ fucking token.”

“Now that we have that established,” Mike was bringing back the focus, “it’s time for us to perform the ritual.”

“What, right here?” Ben was inquiring in disbelieved confusion. “Shouldn’t we do this somewhere where a fire can be contained?”

“And maybe a place with machine guns or any other potentially useful demon clown killing weapons?” Richie’s reasoning resulted in Eddie pointing in agreement.

“The ideal battleground would be It’s lair,” Mike explained. “Only It doesn’t seem to have one here.”

“Not unless it’s the castle,” Stan considered. “That’s the only place we’ve seen.”

“Not quite.” Bill, meanwhile, had seen something else.

“Is that…” Beverly looked where Bill was, “…this is the cottage from _Sleeping Beauty_.”

Richie felt the need to ask, “What is it with these woods having random buildings somewhere in the middle of them?”

“It’s closer than the castle at least,” this seemed to be Eddie’s preference.

“Come on,” this time Mike took charge and started leading everyone.

“Be c-c-careful,” Bill warned as they headed inside the cottage.

“Yeah, this is definitely the cottage the fairies hid her in for sixteen years,” Bev stopped shortly after entry in slight surprise. “On the outside at least.”

“Yeah, I don’t remember _Sleeping Beauty_ having all these chairs,” Richie was compelled to quip. “Or any actually; I really don’t remember much about that movie except the fucking dragon.”

“If I didn’t know any better…no.”

“Bev?” Ben pressed for her to go on.

“…this layout is like the cottage for the seven dwarfs in _Snow White_. That doesn’t make sense because this isn’t _Snow White_. Not when everything looks the way it does in _Sleeping Beauty_.”

Stan counted the chairs. “There are seven chairs,” he then sat in one of them. “Like there’s one for each of us.”

“Nevertheless,” Mike took out the artifact and set it center of the table, “it’s time.” As if by luck, his backpack also contained lighter fluid and a match. He poured the fluid into the artifact, lit the match, threw it in, and a small fire was lit. “We’ll start with you, Bill.” Bill nodded, reached for his boat, gave it one last glance over, and then tossed it into the fire. “That’s good. Who’s next?” No response.

“Umm,” Eddie took out his inhaler, “I guess I’ll go next,” he threw the inhaler into the fire. Bev and Ben were next to throw their respective items in.

“Mike,” Stan began, “I think you still---”

“Oh!” Mike took out Stan’s book and passed it to him. “It’s best that you burn your own item.” Stan nodded and tossed his item into the flame. Mike got out his scrapbook and sacrificed it to the fire.

“Guess that just leaves me,” Richie flicked his token into the burning artifact. Then they waited. “Something’s supposed to happen now, right?”

Ben looked at Mike. “Did we do it wrong?”

“I don’t understand!” Mike was doing his best not to freak out. “We burned our items.”

“Are you sure that’s all there is to it?”

“The past must burn with the present: we burn our items from the past. After that, It’s true form will be revealed.”

“Maybe we were supposed to do it at the castle.”

“If so,” Stan began, “why are we in this random cottage in the middle of a fucking forest?”

“A detour?”

“Why the hell would we need to take a detour?”

“Maybe to eat,” Richie headed toward the dining area. Atop the dining table, was a shiny, red apple. “Man, I’m starving.”

“NO!” the others were expecting something to happen when Richie picked up the apple, but nothing did.

“Fine, someone find a knife and I’ll split it with you guys.” A few of them vocally declined Richie’s offer and started to look around the cottage for any signs of Pennywise or It’s handiwork. Richie stayed where he was and shrugged. “Okay, more food for me.”

“Richie, do not eat that!” Eddie was stern in his warning. “You have no idea where it’s been or how it got here.”

“It got here because when a mommy apple and a daddy apple love each other very much---”

“Bro!”

“Come on Eds, it’s not like it’s poison or anything.”

This seemed to be a trigger to send Eddie into a slight panic mode. “What if it is? What if It’s luring you into a false sense of security with the designs and this is really _Snow White_?”

“You are short enough to be a dwarf.”

“Fuck you.”

“Maybe it’s playing mind games like with those three doors; making something seem obvious, then trying to trick us into thinking it’s something else, only for it to be the first thing the whole time. Well, it was just me and Bill with the doors, but-”

“-but how do you know there’s nothing wrong with that apple?”

“I know I’m hungry,” without warning, Eddie rushed over to Richie and grabbed the apple from him. “What the fuck, Eds?”

“Don’t call me Eds,” with shaky hands, Eddie raised the apple. “There is something wrong with this and the only way you’re going to learn is to shove it into your mouth, consequences be damned. You god damn, stubborn asshole! You…” Eddie suddenly stopped and stared at the apple in his hand.

“Eddie.” Eddie didn’t respond. The only response came from the other Losers giving their full attention to this scene and to a visibly anxious Richie. “Okay, you proved your point. I won’t eat the damn apple.”

Eddie’s eyes remained fixated on the fruit of temptation. “You’re not supposed to.”

“The fuck does that mean?” Eddie brought the apple closer to his mouth. “Eddie, come on; you don’t know where that’s been.”

Eddie smiled at Richie. “I know where your mom’s been.” A stunned (but impressed) Richie watched as Eddie bit into the apple. And Richie hated to admit it, but Eddie was right about something being wrong. The moment after he took the first bite, Eddie began gasping for breath. Somehow, he managed to wheeze out a very weak, “Richie.”

“EDDIE!” Richie’s feet seemed to grow wings as he ran over to Eddie and caught him before he fell to the ground—the bitten apple dropping from his hand and rolling onto the floor. “Eddie! Eddie, wake up!”

All the Losers had were now gathered around them unsure of what to do. Bill’s stutter was prominent as he tried to query, “W-w-why did he do that?” What d-d-did he mean when he s-s-said what he said?”

“That apple had to have been there for a reason,” Mike suggested. “Maybe one of us had to be willing to sacrifice ourselves and voluntarily eat it.”

“So what’s supposed to happen now?” Ben questioned. “How is any of this going to defeat It and save Eddie?”

A loud clap of thunder startled the group. It hadn’t even been two seconds before another thunderclap was heard. “I don’t think it’s the weather,” Stan wasn’t intending for that to be a joke, but he wasn’t sure how to word it.

Bill stood up and went to the nearest window. “Hey,” he gestured for the other Losers to gather around the window. Everyone but Richie joined Bill at the window to see what saw. This window was positioned to look toward the castle. In that direction, the castle was surrounded by darkness except for three floating lights.

“The Deadlights,” Bev whispered.

“I think that’s where It wants to f-f-fight us.” This seemed to be confirmed as everything began to quake and pieces of the cottage started to crumble. “We need to get out of here NOW!” Everyone began to flee the scene.

Everyone, that is, except Richie. “You guys go without me.”

“Richie you have to---”

“I’m not leaving him!

“Rich---”

“SHUT UP!" this took everyone aback. "I'm not going unless Eddie goes; we gotta get him out of here too!”

“The place is coming down!”

“We can’t fucking leave him like this! The fuck is wrong with you? You want me to leave him down here? Are you nuts? Aren’t you the one who’s saying we all need to stay together?”

“Richie, he…” Bill didn’t know what to say.

“He’s not fucking dead! Eddie’s just…he’s just hurt.”

“Richie---”

“WE CAN STILL HELP HIM!”

Bev put a comforting hand on a trembling Richie’s shoulder. “He’s going to be okay, Richie.” Richie was trying to fight back tears. “We’ll find a way to take him with us, destroy Pennywise, and then _all of us_ are getting out of here alive. We just need to do it like right now before this place collapses on us.”

“I’ll carry him the whole time if I have to. I’m not going to leave him.”

“Here,” Ben hurried over and helped Richie get Eddie up, “it’ll be easier to have someone help you.”

Richie couldn’t help but be awed as the two of them lifted Eddie. “I know this is a bad time, but damn Haystack, you bulked up big time.”

“Beep, beep, Richie.”

“Why is everyone suddenly remembering _that_?”

Everyone was startled by a noise coming from the artifact. They watched as the fire rose out of the artifact and into the air, subsequently setting the place ablaze.

“GET OUT OF HERE, NOW!” Bill’s command made everyone go faster.

Not that fleeing was easy. Ben and Richie were carrying their fallen comrade, everyone trying to avoid the flames, the ground was shaking, and things were flying or falling all over the place. Eventually, the quakes caused a glass window to shatter near Stan and Mike. They each used their arms to shield their faces. This gesture worked for Mike.

“AH!” but not so much for Stan. As he held up his arms, a giant shard of glass cut across his wrist. The shock of the injury coupled with the blood pouring, was enough to make Stan pass out.

“STANLEY!” Despite the injury to his own wrist, Mike still made the effort to help Stan. Beverly was soon at Stan’s other side helping Mike bring Stan to his feet. “Stanley! Stan, can you hear me?”

“The blood,” Stan muttered in response, “so much blood.”

“Let’s get him out of here,” Bev instructed. Mike nodded and he and Bev helped get Stan out of there.

Before the entire place collapsed, all of the Losers successfully made it out. They watched the cottage crumble before exchanging uncertain glances with one another. Surveying the damage, they couldn’t help but notice everything that remained outside of the cottage, like a water trough designed like a turtle shell and a perfectly usable mining cart, remained intact. Mike and Bev helped bring Stan to as Ben and Richie looked over Eddie to make sure there was no other damage—a very small piece of Eddie’s jacket did get burned though.

“What do we do now?” Beverly questioned. “Anything that we could have used, including the artifact, was inside the cottage.”

“What good would it have been?” Bill was a little cold when he said that. “We take that cart for Eddie and we go to the castle where It will be waiting for us.”

“Bill, we have nothing to use to stop Pennywise!”

“Then we’ll just have to improvise. Search the debris for anything we could use and put it in the cart with Eddie.”

Beverly sighed and turned to Stan. “Here,” she took off her jacket and wrapped it around Stan’s wound, “this will have to suffice for now.” Stan bit his lip. “What?”

“Before I came here…” Stan hesitated, “…I was thinking about…” he made a gesture of slitting his wrists.

“I know.”

“How do you know?”

“I saw it years ago when I looked into It’s Deadlights. I was so glad to see you when you came back.”

“Despite everything: I’m glad I came back.” He watched the other Losers gather potential weapons. “I may be the weakest, but I can still be your strongest supporter. Just tell me what to do.”

The others had finished what they were doing, put Eddie into the cart, and clustered together. Bill looked around at the standing Losers. “Are you r-r-ready?” The others nodded.

All except Richie (and Eddie). Richie seemed more determined than ever when he vowed, “Let’s kill this fucking clown.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This would have been way too long if I kept it one part. I thought maybe an epic showdown would be best suited for it’s own chapter anyway. And yes, I did borrow dialogue from THAT alternate scene.
> 
> So I got everyone back just to make them suffer. I kinda feel sorry for Stan though; I thought I’d give It’s first attack on him as a kind of throwback and then his wrist getting cut as a reference to…well, I’m sure we caught that part.


	11. The Final Showdown (Once Upon a Nightmare 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone noticed the subtitle for this part? 'Once Upon a Nightmare'. How if you replace that last word with its opposite you get 'Once Upon a Dream'. Hey, isn’t that a song from "Sleeping Beauty"? You know, the fairy tale I was heavily implying the last chapter was based on before I threw a little curveball. I’ve been kinda waiting for someone to catch me on that.
> 
> Apologies for the delay; here is the showdown chapter.

The trek through the woods and back to the castle was mostly silent. Now really wasn’t the time for small talk. Not when they knew what they were going to face off against. What was there to say in this situation? This was no mood for conversation. Richie, who often broke the silences, made no noises. Despite moving forward, he’d often look behind him every couple of seconds. Stan was pushing an unconscious Eddie in a mining cart, and Richie kept looking back for any sign that Eddie would wake up. The other Losers would look toward Eddie too, but not as often. Bev, Stan, and Ben did seem to be communicating through gestures and facial expressions and it obviously seemed to be about not only Eddie, but Richie too. Mike kept his eyes cast downward and seemed to distance himself from the rest of the group and lag a bit behind. At the front was a stoic and determined Bill, who looked forward the whole time.

“I’m sorry,” it was Mike who broke through the quiet. “The whole ritual thing was my idea. And now…” he drew in a breath, “…I truly hope belief will be enough to defeat It.”

Bev put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “We stopped Pennywise once, we can do it again. We’re stronger when we’re together.”

“That was us as a group in Derry. While we here, did any of us _physically_ fight It off?”

“I think…” Ben was contemplating what he was going to say, “…when Bill and I went underwater to save Stanley. The two of us together were able to at least get It to loosen its grip or something so that we all went back to the surface.” He bit his lip in thought. “Did we weaken It because Bill and I were working together? We didn’t stop It, but…”

“I stabbed It,” Stan remembered. “When It was a weird wolf-clown hybrid and had Bill cornered, I stabbed it. A lot. Only it didn’t die, it just crawled away.”

“I don’t know if mine counts,” Bev had recalled something, “but when It was disguised as my dad and trying to come in, I kicked it. It was enough to have it cry out in pain and back off.”

“That was around the time It looked like Bowers, right?” Mike asked her.

“I think so. And for what it’s worth: if I ever needed anyone to back me up in a fight, you’d be one of the first people I’d call on.”

Richie couldn’t help but smile when he told them, “Eddie and I burned the fucker alive.” The way he said it garnered a few small chuckles. “Eddie was the one who came up with the idea, I just helped.” He glanced over at the still unconscious Eddie. “We just have to keep reminding ourselves he’ll wake up once this is over.”

No one knew how to respond to this. Bev was the one who eventually did. “And he will once we defeat Pennywise.”

“But everything we did wasn’t enough the first time,” Stan verbalized his observation. “Plus how do we know Eddie—or any of us—will get out of here alive? Can you promise we’ll all get out of here alive, Bev?”

“No Stan, I can’t.”

“We’re not in Derry,” Ben was sort of coming to her defense. “Whenever something dies in Derry, it stayed dead. Derry was real. This place we’re in isn’t real, it’s a fairy tale. All fairy tales have a happy ending.”

“_All_ of them?”

“Stanley, were you always this pessimistic?”

“I’m being _realistic_. I'm more of a realist.”

"No better time to be a realist than in a _fantasy_ world."

“Whoa!” the Losers, watched Bill fall to the ground. As they chorused concern, Bill stared at what had tripped him. “I’m okay,” the turtle was tiny in his hands. “So is this little guy.”

“What’s a turtle doing in the middle of the woods? Wouldn’t it be in water like the ones Ben swam with?”

“Those were bigger,” Ben reminded. “And not all turtles have to be near water.”

“Can we not talk about turtles please?” Richie questioned a bit coldly. “It’s giving me PTSD flashback of that old lady’s nasty looking soup—which is only making me more hungry.”

“Was her soup in a turtle bowl?” Bev asked him.

“Turtle bowl? No, she said it was _supposed_ to be turtle soup but it---” he noticed Mike had a look of contemplation about it. “---you alright there, Mikey?”

Mike responded by breathing out one word. “Maturin.”

“That like some kind of magic word, or something?”

“There’s a lot of lore about Maturin the Turtle. The well-known one being that Maturin is the one who created the universe. I originally dismissed it, but what you guys were saying…I thought back to the Shokopiwah; how often the turtle showed up in their decor. I thought it was like their spirit animal, but it’s probably more to that. Some of the lore also believed Maturin helps to fend off great evils.”

“That statue!” Bev recalled with some excitement. “There were animal statues in the giant’s castle that had all our names on it. Except for mine. My name was the only one missing and it was supposed to be on a turtle statue. With the turtles under the sea, the bowl that looks like a turtle, turtle soup, and Bill tripping over a turtle, this can’t all be a coincidence.”

Ben snapped in fingers in remembrance. “I threw a ceramic turtle at It when it was disguised as Beverly!”

“In one way or another, the turtle was there for all our trials.”

“Not for me and Bill,” Stan spoke up. “There was nothing about turtle soup, or decoration, or statues, or anything.”

“The cloud,” Bill simply stated, “the one that looked like---”

“---a turtle,” he and Stan finished together.

“It helped us see the smoke that l-l-led us to where It was.”

“Like it was guiding us toward our tokens,” Mike surmised.

Bill lowered himself to the ground and released the creature from his hands. “Go on little guy.” The turtle started to (very slowly) crawl away.

Richie was confused. “We’re not taking it with us?”

“The turtle helped guide us before, it’ll do it again,” Bill was strangely confident in this. “We’re gonna follow it.”

“We collected all our tokens,” Ben pointed out. “What’s it gonna lead us to?”

“Hopefully what we need to destroy P-P-Pennywise.” They watched as the reptile turned away from the castle. “Come on,” Bill took the lead again as everyone else reluctantly followed.

Following a turtle sounded like a more pleasing option than fighting off a killer clown anyway.

The group was eventually led to a clearing where a tent rested. “This is a Shokopiwah tent,” Mike observed. This time, he took the lead as he opened the tent. “Well that’s helpful.”

“Are these…” Bev picked up a bolt gun from a collection of what seemed like random supplies, “…these are the weapons we fought Pennywise off with twenty-seven years ago.” She inspected the weapon. “Even down to the literally last bolt.”

Ben grinned as he picked up another weapon. “Hey Bev, remember this?”

Bev set down the bolt gun and accepted Ben’s gift with a smile. “The spike I used to strike the very first blow at the Neibolt House.” Her grip around it tightened. “I think I’ll hold onto this one.”

“Hmm,” Stan was glancing over a piece of pipe beside a chain, “it’s amazing these things never rusted.” He opted to pick up the pipe with his left hand and swing it around.

“Hey now,” Ben dodged a near hit. “Careful with that thing.”

“Sorry; but you have to admit my swinging wasn’t terrible for being predominately right.”

“You’ve suffered two casualties, Stan,” Bev reminded their friend. “Please don’t run the risk of a third.”

“I just thought I’d use this like last time. Bill had the chain and Mike had the other pipe.”

“Is it a pipe?” Mike’s item was metal and blunt. It was the same item Henry Bowers had struck Mike from behind with, only for Mike to take it with him down to the sewers, “I never did figure out what it was, but it sure is good to see it again.”

“I think maybe Richie should have this one,” Bill passed a baseball bat to Richie. “Welcome to the Losers Club, Asshole.”

Richie couldn’t help but chuckle. “Now, we gotta kill this fucking clown.”

…

The exterior of the castle was essentially for appearance’s sake. Upon crossing the bridge, the Losers had entered some sort of cavern. “It’s less creepier than the Neibolt House,” Richie remarked, “I’ll give it that much.”

“Less creepy, Richie,” Stan corrected his grammar.

“Is now really the time, Stanley?”

“We should find a place to leave Eddie,” Ben suggested.

“Not that there’s a lot of option,” Bev noted as she looked around.

“Let’s put him over there,” Bill decided on an area off to the side.

As Stanley was about to wheel the cart, Richie stopped him. “I got this,” he scooped Eddie into his arms and carried him over to where Bill had suggested. “Hopefully he’ll be safe here,” he sat Eddie upright against the cavern wall. “We’ll be back, Eddie,” he promised to their unresponsive friend. He pulled Eddie in for a hug and held him as if he didn’t want to let go.

“Come on,” Bill was the one who gently pulled Richie away. Reluctantly, Richie followed the remaining Losers. “Be c-c-careful: It could be any w-w,” his stutter was preventing him from saying what he needed, “any w-w-“

“Just be on your guard,” Mike seemed to take second in command. Bill nodded in acknowledged agreement.

Using a flashlight from the collection of supplies, Ben shined a light toward one of the many cavern openings. “You think it’s hiding in any of these small spaces?”

“That’s a pretty tight squeeze,” Stan commented. “It’d have to shrink down to the size of a small animal or something.”

“We’d probably be able to stop It easily if It really was that small,” Bev cautiously inserted her hands through the opening. “And remember: if you see any balls of light, don’t look into them. Those are the Deadlights.”

“You got caught in them,” Ben recalled.

She nodded. “I’ve seen some things in them that I never want to see again. Things I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. Things that haunt my dreams.”

“It’s okay,” Ben took her hands in his, “you’re okay now. We broke you out of the Deadlight’s hold before, we can do it again.”

“I don’t remember how you did.”

Ben was trying hard not to smile, but one snuck on. “I do.”

As they were about to lean in for a demonstration, Richie loudly cleared his throat. This made Ben nervously back away. “As happy as I am that the two most attractive members of the club are going to boink, I really don’t think now’s the time.”

Bev gave a noise between a scoff and a chuckle. “_Boink_, Richie?”

“Uh, guys,” Stan had an obvious tremble in his voice. When they joined him near the center of the cavern, they saw he had an obvious tremble to his whole body. His flashlight was focused on a single red balloon that had not been there before just floating slowly.

“Well that’s not at all ominous,” leave it to Richie to try and break the tension.

“I’m not going near that thing. Not when I know what’s gonna be behind it.”

“Stan, there is nothing behind it,” Ben pointed out.

“Not yet there isn't.”

“Guys,” Mike soon joined the majority, “is it me, or is the balloon getting bigger?” Everyone watched as the red balloon started to expand. It kept their attention as it grew bigger and bigger until the inevitable

POP

The gang ducked and covered as pieces of the red balloon scattered about the cavern and their hearing gradually returned. And of course the first thing they’d hear would be Pennywise’s sinister laughing echoing throughout. The Deadlights that had led them to the castle fell from the sky as they desperately tried to look away.

“Twenty-seven years,” something that sounded like giant footsteps grew louder after Pennywise spoke. The Losers had no choice but to look toward where Pennywise was coming from. “For twenty-seven years I dreamt of you.” The killer clown chuckled as it came into full view. “I craved you.” The Losers were horrified to see the top part of Pennywise the Clown on a giant, spider-like body. “I’ve missed you!” The clown burst into sadistic laughter as the arms that tangled from it’s torso morphed into very sharp claws.

Richie was the only one to verbally express their sentiments. “You have got to be fucking kidding me.”

As the monster moved closer, everyone began to flee. Everyone except Mike, who seemed to be paralyzed (not with fear, but rather a guilty conscious). “My fault,” he managed to utter, “sorry guys.” He was ready to accept Pennywise’s first strike, but Bill managed to push him out of the way.

The Losers fled as Pennywise gave chase, using various parts of its body to bang against the cavern walls and pieces of the location begin to fall toward them. “THROUGH HERE!” Ben called out when he found a cave entrance big enough for the humans to hide in.

“Come out and play, Losers,” Pennywise taunted when it couldn’t fit, digging it’s claws to make the entrance wider.

“What do we do?” Stan anxiously yelled to his friends. “I had no idea it was gonna be _that_ big. How are we supposed to fight it off now?”

“Fighting Pennywise as a clown was one thing,” Ben was sort of agreeing with Stan. “There’s no way we can defeat a gigantic spider-clown hybrid.”

“No,” Bill refused to give up, “no, we all m-m-made It weak in one way or another when we f-f-fought it. We need to make It small enough to k-k-kill and we need to s-s-stick together to do it.”

“You think we can all attack that thing?”

“Maybe if we trick It,” Bev suggested. “We each take a weapon, we split up, and we attack It from different sides.”

“I’m staying with you.”

“Ben---”

“I don’t care, I’m not going to run the risk of losing the woman I’ve loved for the past twenty-seven years.”

“You two can attack it together then,” Stan decided. “It’s probably best to have two in the back and two at one of the sides.”

“This is all my fault,” Mike confessed. “If I hadn’t brought you all back here…” he sighed, “…guys, I lied. The ritual didn’t work because it never worked.”

“WHAT?”

“But I believed with us it would be different.”

“Mikey, you lied to us?” Bill was equally dumbfounded by this.

“That’s why I’ll be in the front. I deserve to be punished for this and I’ll accept the consequences. Even if that means It kills me.”

“We won’t let It kill you.”

“But---”

“Yes, we’re a little up-up-upset that you lied, but we still love you Mikey. We’re not gonna let anyth-any-anything hap-happen to you.” Bill turned to Stan. “Stan, you shouldn’t go alone. I’ll be w-w-ith you.” Stan nodded at that.

“Well this makes me feel special,” there was a tiny hint of sincerity in Richie’s jest. “Have me go off on my lonesome with a wooden bat while you guys hit It with your blunt weapons and Bev’s spear.”

“Spike,” Bev corrected.

“Whatever! My bat doesn’t have anything pointy coming out of it and those claws could easily slice through the wood.”

“Then hit It with a rock.”

“Maybe I should stay with Eddie in case he wakes up.”

“You give us one good hit and we’ll let you go back with Eddie, okay.”

Richie sighed. “Fine. I guess I’ll attack from one of the sides.”

“Then Ben and I will take the other side.”

“Guess that leaves the back for me and Bill,” Stan stated.

Bill then brought up a crucial point. “Pennywise f-f-feeds off our fears. We can’t sh-sh-show we’re afraid. Sw-sw-swear it.” He held his hand out.

Stanley put his hand atop Bill’s. “I swear it, Bill.”

The others didn’t need to say it aloud as they all placed their hands atop each other’s. With a final nod from each of them, they set off to destroy the clown once and for all.

Too busy digging at the entrance, Pennywise didn’t notice the others had escaped through a narrow passageway until it felt something bash against his right leg. As It readied to strike Beverly and Ben, there came another hit at the back of the leg. Before It could go after Bill and Stanley, there came a strike from the side again. Out of the corner of It’s eye, It saw Mike was about to attack from the front. This time, Pennywise was ready. Without warning, it’s reached for the front and faced Mike. “Miss me, Mikey?” A smaller claw protruded from the monster and aimed for Mike’s throat.

“I’m not afraid of you,” Mike avowed. Still, Mike couldn’t help but scream as Pennywise grabbed a hold of him, the claw ever closer to his throat.

As Pennywise tightened it’s grip on Mike, a large rock flew at It from the left side. “HEY FUCKFACE!” Pennywise (and the other Losers) turned to see Richie standing atop a crag. “You want a piece of me, you sloppy bitch!” Richie picked up another rock as Pennywise threw Mike aside. “Yeah! Rock war! Yippee-ki-aye mother fu---” he was suddenly cut off when Pennywise turned the Deadlights on him.

“RICHIE, NO!” Bev cried out as Richie began to float.

“Bev, give me your spike!” Stan instructed her. She passed her weapon to Stan. “Guys, I need help.”

“With what?” Ben questioned.

“I can’t throw with my left arm.” The others seemed to catch on as they all took hold of the weapon. “When I give the word, we throw this into the Deadlights. Ready? NOW!” The Losers hurled the weapon through the monster’s mouth. Immediately, It began to choke and stumble backwards, eventually impaling itself. Subsequently, Richie had also fallen. Thankfully, he landed on his back.

“Rich!” Bill was at the front as the Losers ran to their fallen companion.

“Richie, wake up!” Bev was verging on tears until Richie came to.

Richie blinked a few times and looked around. “Where’d I go just now and why am I on the ground?”

“Let’s get him up,” Ben ordered before helping Richie to his feet. “You okay, Richie.”

“Yeah, but my back is gonna be sore for like a week.” He noticed the impaled spider-clown. “Did you get It? Is It dead?”

The question was answered when one of Pennywise’s arms came crashing to the ground. “It’s still alive!”

They watched as the monster struggled to regain it’s bearings. “We’ve wounded it,” Mike pointed out, “but it wasn’t enough to weaken it.”

“No shit,” Stan scoffed at that, “because we’re up against a huge fucking monster!”

“Bev said something earlier about making it small enough to kill,” Ben remembered. “Is there any way we can make It small?”

“All living things must abide by the shape that they inhabit,” Mike spoke this quietly. “We have to get it to change it’s shape somehow.”

“How?” Beverly questioned. "Can It even do that in the form it's in now?"

“I’m not sure.”

“Maybe we can lure it to an opening where It’ll have to make itself small enough to fit through.”

“It’s worth a shot,” Bill decided that plan was as good as any. “We need to get It’s attention!” The Losers waited until the monster was back on it’s feet to draw attention and then give chase. What they didn’t expect as they fled was for the spider-clown to run on the cavern walls. “Oh, shit!”

“GOTCHA!” The monster jumped off the walls and cut off their path. “You filthy little children,” It started inching closer to the Losers.

Ben nervously looked around. “Anyone got a Plan B? What the hell do we do now?”

“Die, that’s what you do.” Pennywise laughed as they backed away in fear. “I can smell the stink of your fears.”

”How are we supposed to get It small now?” Stan questioned.

Bev had a sudden answer to that. “We make him believe he’s small.”

Pennywise laughed. “Oh, me? Small?”

Mike stopped. “We’re not afraid. When we’re together, our power is bigger than yours. You want to make us believe that _we’re _the ones who are small and weak, but we’re not. You are.”

“Oh, me? I am the eater of worlds.”

“Not to us, you’re not.” This seemed to take Pennywise aback. “You’re just a clown.” Not wanting to let on that It was stunned, Pennywise lunged forward with it’s many teeth bared.

“You’re a weak old woman,” Beverly wasn’t afraid either.

Pennywise nearly recoiled at this. “I AM THE EATER OF WORLDS!”

“You’re a headless boy!” Ben joined in. The Losers then started to notice Pennywise was gradually getting smaller.

“IMPOSTER!” Bill shouted as the top half of Pennywise began to change form.

“MIMIC!” Stan was out to prove to It that he was never weak.

“A MIMIC!” Ben agreed.

“You’re a fucking bully!” Bev knew the irony of the situation, but now wasn’t really the time to be a hypocrite.

“YOU’RE JUST A FUCKING CLOWN!” an anger suddenly took over Mike.

“CLOWN!” all the Losers started to chant at the monster.

“A DUMB FUCKING CLOWN!” naturally, Richie’s insults had to stand out.

As a shrinking Pennywise stumbled back while altering it’s appearance to their childhood fears, the Losers continued to approach it shouting various insults at It.

“CLOWN!”

“A PAINTING!”

“AN OLD LADY!”

“A MOTHER-FUCKING STUPID MUMMY!”

“CLOWN!”

Pennywise was shrinking away in fear all the while proclaiming, “EATER OF WORLDS.”

“Guys,” Stan gestured to the nearby weapons. He, Richie, and Bev went to grab some as Mike, Bill, and Ben continued to shout at the sniveling little creature,

Not one to give up, Pennywise still put up a fight and thrusted it’s clawed limbs at the Losers. However, the point seemed to be moot once the Losers got their weapons back and fought back. Pennywise almost got in a strike, but then Richie (of all people) ripped off it’s primary leg.

With a few more, “Clown” insults, the Losers had a tiny Pennywise backed into a corner.

“Clown,” Mike was front and center now as weapons were being passed behind him, “with a scared, beating heart.”

Pennywise tried to scare off Mike as he reached for it’s heart, but to no avail. Using the bolt gun, Bill shot the only bolt into the clown's head to pin It down. The eater of worlds was forced to watch as it’s heart was ripped from it’s chest and the Losers all clasped their hands onto/around the still beating heart. “Look at you,” they didn’t look at It, “you’re all grown up.” It laughed as Bill looked into it’s eyes and was the first to crush the heart. The others soon squeezed at the organ until there was nothing left. The Deadlights faded and the body of the demonic entity disintegrated before their eyes.

The Losers all breathed a sigh of relief and embraced each other in a sort of group hug. It had taken twenty-seven years, but they had won.

“Eddie,” Richie was the first to cease the celebrating and hurry over to their still lifeless friend. “We got Pennywise, man, we did it,” he touched Eddie’s cheek, but there was no response. “Eddie,” Richie lightly shook him. “Eddie, come on, we won. You’re supposed to get up now.” Beverly knelt beside him. “You promised once we stopped that thing that Eddie would be okay.”

“Richie…” Beverly didn’t know what to say, “…I thought that it would all end okay like it does in all the fairy tales.”

Stan lowered himself to their level. “Bev has a point: we are in a fairy tale. Whether it’s _Sleeping Beauty_ or _Snow White_, they both ended the same.” Richie didn’t understand what Stan was getting at. “True love’s kiss breaks the spell every time.”

This made Richie visibly anxious. “Stanley, I---”

“When I said I wanted two of you to just admit you loved each other, I wasn’t talking about Ben and Bev.”

“You mean you---”

Stan nodded. “I’ve always known.” Richie turned away. “And I promise I don’t think any less of you.” Richie looked at his friend’s face and noticed the sincerity. “You've waited long enough; kiss him, Richie.”

Richie gave a small nod, swallowed a gulp, and placed a tender kiss on Eddie’s lips. The moment he did, torrents of light burst throughout the cavern. When Richie pulled away, Eddie immediately opened his eyes and gasped for air. “Eddie!” Richie flung himself into Eddie’s arms, which in turn caused a surprised Eddie to back against the cavern wall. “Eddie, you’re alive!”

Eddie examined his surroundings. “Is it me, or has Derry gotten worse?” This elicited some laughs.

“We’re still in the fairy tale,” Bev explained.

“We are? Did we stop Pennywise?”

Richie smiled. “We stopped It.”

“For good?”

“For good.”

“Fuck yeah we did!” Without warning, an excited Eddie pressed his lips against Richie—this time causing Richie to stumble back in surprise. When he realize what he did, a nervous Eddie backed away. “Heh, sorry about that, Bro.”

“It’s alright, man.” The two of them awkwardly shook hands as Stan rolled his eyes at them.

“Welcome back, Eddie,” Beverly was the next to kiss Eddie—on the cheek—as the others simultaneously greeted their friend and surrounded him in a group hug.

“Eddie, man, I gotta know,” Bill began, “why did you eat that apple?”

“Honestly,” Eddie contemplated how to say what he had to say, “I don’t know. I wasn’t going to let Richie do something stupid, obviously; but something just told me that_ I_ had to be the one to eat it. That it was all going to work out in the end if I was the one who did that. I mean, it did all work out. Plus I didn’t have to fight the fucking killer clown so…bonus.”

“Richie’s token,” Mike suddenly said. “The ritual didn’t work because that wasn’t Richie’s token. Eddie, I think you were his token the whole time.”

“I was?”

“Yes, and you giving up your life to save Richie did help us to fight off It in it’s true form.”

“What was It’s true form?”

“You don’t wanna know,” Ben assured him.

“So after you guys won, how did you wake me up?”

Beverly gave a coy little laugh. “Fairy tale logic.”

“Fairy tale logic?”

“True love’s kiss saved the day.”

“So you---”

“Nope!” Bev nudged Richie forward.

“Richie?" A nod. "Richie Tozier?" Another nod. "Richie '_Trashmouth_' Tozier?"

"Yep," Bev responded with a giggle.

"No. No way! No, it can’t…”

“It can and it was.”

Eddie directed his attention to Richie. “Richie, you love me?”

Richie stuffed in hands in his pockets and looked at the ground muttering, “Yeah, I guess.” He was surprised when Eddie then hit him. “OW!”

“What the fuck took you so long, asshole?”

“Was me being in love with you that obvious?”

“To everyone except you,” Stan commented.

“Guys,” Bill was walking toward the center of the cavern where a series of seven spotlights were waiting, “I think this is the way home.” The other Losers made their way toward the lights. Bill opted for the one in the center. When the other six stood in the lights, some sort of magic began to work and everyone began to levitate toward one larger light waiting for them.

And this time, the Losers weren’t afraid to float.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I’m gonna have one last chapter as an epilogue and because I prefer ending on an even number.


	12. Epilogue (Happily Ever After)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINAL CHAPTER!!!

They were all back at the library within a blink of an eye. Standing there gathered around the front desk, Georgie’s book of fairy tales unopened.

“So…that happened,” since no one really knew what to do or say, Richie felt it best to break the silence.

Mike tentatively touched the desk. “It’s real.” He knocked on the wood. “Guys, we’re back in Derry!” A mini celebration broke out amongst the group. “I think this time It’s really gone.”

Stan’s jaw nearly hit the floor. “We actually fucking did it?”

“Yeah,” Bill answered on Mike’s behalf, “we did.” He picked up the book and went through it. Nothing about the book was amiss or out of the ordinary. “Now it’s like it never happened.”

“But we’re still gonna remember, right?” The Losers all exchanged uncertain glances with each other.

“Let’s not worry about that now,” Bev started to veer off topic. “Now that everyone’s here, I believe we should discuss dinner plans.”

“Good,” Richie agreed, “because I’m fucking starving.”

“Wait,” Eddie had a habit of using hand gestures when he spoke and this time was going to be no exception, “we’re not gonna talk about anything that just happened? Pretend like we all just came from where we came from to talk about where we’re gonna eat? I feel there are some things that need to be addressed.” Without warning, Beverly went over to Eddie and grabbed one of his hands. “What’s this? What are you doing?”

“Your scar,” she gently ran her finger over Eddie’s hand, “it’s gone.”

“My scar?” Eddie examined his hand. “Holy shit, it is gone!”

“M-m,” Bill held his hand up for all to see, “-mine too.” The Losers looked at their hands.

“I guess it’s official,” Mike announced. “We kept our oath and this is a sort of thank you gift.”

“Oh Stan,” Bev delicately smoothed her fingers over Stan’s face, “the scars from your attack are gone too.”

“They are?” Stan traced his fingers where the scars once were. “I hope Patty doesn’t notice; that’s gonna be tough to explain.”

“Hey Stan,” Mike threw a pen from the desk at him.

Instinctively, Stan caught it. “Why did you---” Mike seemed to be doing some strange hand movements. “---is that the hand that you hurt?”

“Are you holding the pen in your right hand?”

“Huh,” Stan unrolled his makeshift bandage and inspected his damage-free right arm, “well I’ll be damned.”

Eddie still felt as though he wasn’t given a proper resolution. “So we’re not gonna talk about _any_ of what just happened?”

“It’s not like we’re never gonna talk about it again,” Ben started, “just not right away. This is the first time we’ve all been together in so long without having to worry about clowns or bullies and I think we should enjoy it.”

Bev took his hand in hers and looked at him with such admiration. “I agree.”

“Aww,” Richie playfully swooned, “Haystack and Bevvie are finally gonna do it.”

“Beep, beep, Richie.”

Stan’s face lit up. “I remember that! We’d say that to get Richie to try to shut up.”

“Didn’t always work,” Mike commented, earning an agreeing chuckle from Bill.

“So this is what everyone chooses to remember?” Richie questioned in mock offense. “I can’t say that I’m hurt that no one remembers my super awesome jokes.”

“Crude remarks about your dick aren’t jokes, Richie,” Stan admonished.

“Neither were the ‘your mom’ jokes,” Eddie added.

“Come on Eds,” Richie playfully pleaded before finishing with, “you know she loved them.”

“I swear to God, Richie, you’re such an asshole.”

“Yeah, but you love me.” A sudden awkward silence encompassed the room.

“Ahem,” Bill rather loudly cleared his throat, “so did we decide what to do about dinner?”

…

_January, 2017_

Mike tapped on his glass before standing. “I propose a toast,” he raised his glass, “to The Losers: thanks for clearing time off your busy schedules to actually get together in person and not over Skype.”

“Hey, hey,” Richie quickly spoke up before they could drink, “a toast to our newlyweds,” he held up his glass, “thank you for allowing us to celebrate in the elopement of Beverly and Ben Marsh.” Following the toast, the newly married couple kissed. “Room: get one.”

“Joke: tell one,” Beverly teased back to everyone’s delight.

“I totally would have done taken her last name,” Ben stated when the laughter subsided. “You gotta admit Ben Marsh has a nicer ring than Beverly Hanscom.”

“Because we’ve garnered attention in our chosen fields, it’s a safe bet to just keep our last names.”

“That reminds me,” Stan began, “Patty looked over your appeal to drop the ‘_Rogan_’ from ‘_Rogan-Marsh_’ and she thinks she can help things go in your favor.”

“Thank you for marrying such a sweet, bad-ass lawyer.”

“I really don’t deserve her. And she really wanted to come, but she had a court date this afternoon she couldn’t get out of. She sends her love and congratulations. Oh and this gold bracelet we picked up in Buenos Aires,” Stan presented a trinket and passed it to Beverly. She praised the jewelry and showed it too her husband. Ben murmured his approval and helped hook the bracelet on her wrist. “Glad you like,” Stan was pleased. “Patty said you would because I clearly had nothing to do with choosing it.”

“Speaking of wives and gold,” Mike turned to Bill, “how’s our _Golden Globe_ nominated Mrs. Denbrough doing?”

“Audra’s good,” Bill assured. “She’s got a few more shows on the press tour before the ceremony on Sunday. After that we’re probably gonna take a little vacation.”

“You think you’ll be done with your new book by then?” Eddie inquired.

“I think I already am. Just gotta polish up some stuff before sending in the final draft.”

“Code for: make sure the end doesn’t suck,” Richie jested.

“Richie’s got a point,” Stan agreed.

“No, I think you guys are gonna like this ending,” Bill assured before directing attention to Mike. “Hey Mikey, where’s the next stop on your America tour; maybe we’ll accidentally run into you.”

Mike gave a hearty chuckle at that. “I’ll have to get back to you on that one.”

Richie groaned. “Don’t tell me you’re still visiting America’s Nursing Home?”

“I happen to like…certain aspects of Florida.”

“See! See! Not Florida as a whole.”

“Richie, have you even been to Florida?” Bev questioned.

“Once during a very brief comedy tour I opened for. Both the tour and the state were disappointing bombs.”

“You still in L.A.?”

“I’ve been working on some of my own material, but…”

“But?” Eddie prompted.

“…I’m just…what if I do this and it’s the worst thing I’ve ever done? I’ll be out there and it’s all me. I’m going to be completely open and honest while I’m supposed to be funny and…what if people don’t like the real me?”

“We like the real you.”

“What do you owe those people anyway?” Stan questioned. “All the shit they said about you after that show you did before you disappeared? What do you owe them, Richie? Who gives a shit what they think? We’re behind you one-hundred percent and that should be enough.”

Bev reached for his hand. “We love you, Richie.” The others agreed.

Richie took off his glasses and wiped his eyes. “Thanks guys,” he tried to make it seem like he wasn’t crying. “I talk a lot about us, so I’m gonna let you all go over it before I go live. Make sure you’re okay with everything, you know.” He took a deep breath. “Boy, I am not a fan of this serious stuff.” A few laughs escaped the group.

“Okay Eddie,” Ben diverted focus to Eddie, “what have you been up to?”

“Uh,” Eddie blew out a breath not knowing where to start, “it’s been rough. Finally reached a settlement with Myra, all she has to do is sign the divorce papers.”

“Final-fucking-ly,” no one seemed to hear Richie.

“Then what are you gonna do, Eds?” Stan asked.

“I don’t know,” Eddie admitted. “Honestly: there’s nothing for me in New York. I’ll probably transfer somewhere else. Maybe someplace a little more…_risky_.”

“It’d be good for your business.”

“Where you gonna transfer?” Mike inquired.

“Well,” Eddie was now looking at Richie, “I was thinking Los Angeles.”

“Okay then,” that was sufficient enough an answer for the rest of the Losers. “Like I said: I’m just glad we could all get together like this.”

“It’ll probably be a while before we could do anything like this again,” Bill was compelled to add. “What with everything going on in our lives. Who knows when we’ll find the time?”

“Then we make the time,” Beverly decided. “Of course we’ll keep in touch with group texts and Skype, but we need to meet like this on a frequent basis. Patty and Audra too.”

“I agree,” Stan was the first to approve her motion.

“Me too,” Ben was next.

“I feel relieved being here with all of you,” Richie added. “We need to do this; this is good for us.” The others nodded their agreement. “Man, I’m fucking starving,” typical Richie. “Can we order some food now?”

The atmosphere once again became more lighthearted and fun as they all caught up over dinner. They extended their reunion by ordering dessert—which Stan claimed was to celebrate Ben and Bev’s wedding—but most of the Losers instantly regretted filling up on their dinners.

“I knew I shouldn’t have had two helpings,” Eddie lamented. His face became one of disgust as he watched Richie devour the cake. “Is the food actually getting into your mouth? Maybe that’s why you’re so hungry all the time.”

“It’s good cake,” was what it was thought Richie said with his mouth full. He readied his fork for the last piece, but Beverly beat him to it. “Hey!”

Beverly wasn’t going to give in. “Back off, Trashmouth.”

“Dibs.”

“Double dibs! I also call bridal privilege.”

“Doesn’t count!”

“Oh come on, I’m eating for two!” as soon as Beverly said that, she squeaked and covered her mouth. Ben, however, had turned away from the scene trying not to laugh.

“More cake for me,” Richie brought the cake closer to him before Beverly’s words dawned on him. “Wait, what?!”

“Bev,” Bill began, “are you pregnant?”

Bev let out a sigh before breaking into a grin. “Yeah.” The other Losers congregated for a mini group hug and extended their congratulations. “We just found out, and I didn’t want to say anything until I was a few more weeks along. I was afraid someone else,” she gestured to Ben, “was going to be the one to spoil the surprise, but I admit I was wrong.”

"And I am now ten dollars richer," Ben's remark earned a certain gesture from his wife and her middle finger.

“Here,” Richie begrudgingly passed Beverly the cake. “For the record: your boobs do look bigger.”

“Seriously?” Bev and Ben weren't the only ones to bemoan this.

“It’s common knowledge that pregnant women’s breasts get bigger.”

Stan scoffed at this. “Since when are you interest in boobs, Richie?”

“Touché.”

The congratulations and talks of futures went on for another while before Stan was the first to leave. Others soon followed suite until it was only Richie and Eddie left.

“So…” Eddie wasn’t sure what to say, “…I’m happy for Ben and Bev.”

“Yeah, me too,” Richie agreed. “They’ll make great parents. And I suppose having a kid makes them happy and shit.”

“They deserve to be happy.”

“We all do.” There was clearly some subtext in Richie’s tone that Eddie picked up on.

“I know you want to tell everyone about us, but I don’t think now’s the right time. Not just with all this stuff going on with the Losers, but with my divorce and---”

“Eddie, I love you,” Richie’s declaration caught Eddie off guard. “I love you, and if I could, I would tell the world. I don’t want to hide anything anymore, especially from the Losers. I’m taking a big step with coming out and I wanted to tell everyone that I’m finally in a good place being in a relationship with you. I know we haven’t actually said those words yet, but…fuck it: I love you, Eds.”

“Don’t call me Eds.”

“Are you shitting me? I just poured my heart out and that’s all you have to say?”

“Who said that was all I had to say? I just said ‘don’t call me Eds’. I didn’t get to say I love you back because you interrupted me.”

“You love me?”

“Of course I love you, Asshole.” Eddie leaned over the table to pinch Richie’s cheek (similar to the way Richie did with him). “I think I always have, but just didn’t know it.”

“All these years away and I still felt a part of me was missing. Until I come back and see you. And then all that shit with the fucking clown and almost losing you---”

“Let’s not talk about that. It’s over and done with, and we’re going to move on.”

“And we’re all gonna live happily ever after until the next supernatural entity comes to murder us.”

“Beep, beep, Richie.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to end with those words instead of the traditional “happily ever after”. 
> 
> Huge thanks to all the people who read and liked this; thanks for sticking with the story. Peace out!


End file.
